County Council bills push vote observation

GOP sponsor wants to foster transparency

Three ordinances aimed at amending Allegheny County’s elections policies were introduced at County Council Tuesday.

All three sought to amend the administration code to “establish a uniform policy” for various election policies, like public observation of voting machine testing procedures, observation of state-mandated election audits and public review of all videos taken within election facilities.

These ordinances were proposed “to foster transparency in the election process within Allegheny County,” according to the ordinance documents.

All three ordinances were primarily sponsored by Republican council member-at-large Sam DeMarco, who is also chairman of the county Republican Party.

The measures were sent to council’s Committee on Government Reform without discussion.

Pennsylvania law already permits the county Board of Elections to appoint “watchers at primaries and elections”; however, even with amendments as recent as 2020, it doesn’t expressly allow for public viewing of the pre-election setup or the testing of voting machine hardware.

Other states have made “election integrity” a priority following President Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020. State Senate leaders are pursuing the possibility of election audits, following the example of Arizona.

The amendment proposed to council seeks to clear up the language to allow observation of the entire process.

A second ordinance seeks to clarify that same Pennsylvania law to also expressly include the authorization of watchers “at any election audits.”

Should Allegheny County conduct an audit on an election, this amendment would allow the county’s Board of Elections to appoint watchers for the audit process.

The final election policy ordinance proposed Tuesday looks to add a section to the Election Practices code, entitled Election Facility Video recording.

During an election, the county projects a video of the facility where ballots are being counted.

“No provision of county law governs this process,” the ordinance reads.

With the new amendment, the county will continue to provide this video feed within the facility and also provide a live stream of it to the public. In addition, the code will require the county to retain the recordings for at least five years from the date of the election

certification or five years from the date of the final audit of the election results.

Attempts to reach Mr. DeMarco were unsuccessful.

Also on Tuesday, council forwarded a proposed ordinance calling for “a more transparent process for providing public notice of requests for proposals” over $30,000 to the Committee on Government Reform.

Council also unanimously passed a resolution that authorized the county to participate in the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program “in a deteriorated area in the Borough of Etna.”

This site includes the 51 Bridge Street building, where New York-based developer The AM Group is planning to shift the former steel mill into a tech hub.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, the council moved into executive session to discuss “litigation matters,” Council President Pat Catena said.

The next County Council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 31.