‘Pandemic primary’ presents challenges
It’s been dubbed the “pandemic primary” by Montgomery County officials and the road to Tuesday’s primary had twists and turns that included nervous poll workers, consolidating polling places, a surge in vote-bymail requests, mail-in ballot snafus and political sparring.
“This is a pandemic election plan, and in many ways, it is incongruent that we are going to have an in-person election on June 2 while we are still under stay-at-home (orders) until June 4. But we are obligated to do so. … I call this the ‘pandemic primary,’ and that’s what it is, but we are committed to the security of your votes however you choose to cast your vote,” county Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. said recently, adding officials are working hard to ensure the safest possible election for voters.
“I think in some ways, it was a perfect storm. This is the first election where there is widespread mailin voting. There has been a tremendous upsurge, but we are focused and remain focused on making sure people get their ballots and creating opportunities for them to get those ballots back in,” Lawrence, who is also chairman of the Board of Elections, added Friday.
During the primary, voters will nominate party candidates to run in November’s general election when the U.S. presidency is up for grabs. Presidential primary elections generally are more popular than municipal primary elections, held in oddnumbered years, and typically produce large voter turnout. During the 2016 primary, 44.2% of eligible county voters cast ballots.
Statewide, a high-profile primary contest includes the Democratic nomination battle for state auditor general that has six candidates — Nina Ahmad, H. Scott Conklin, Rose Marie Davis, Michael Lamb, Tracie Fountain and Christina Hartman — vying for the November ballot slot.
Locally, the decision by Republican state Rep. Marcy Toepel not to seek another term representing the 147th House District has resulted in a primary contest that has Annamarie Scannapieco, a registered nurse from New Hanover, and Tracy Pennycuick, a retired military helicopter pilot from Lower Salford, seeking the Republican nomination. The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat Jill Dennin, a Boyertown School Board member who is unopposed in the primary.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Typically, the largest crowds show up at the polls before work, between 7 and 9 a.m., and after work at 5 p.m., officials said.
All those in line by 8 p.m. will be permitted to cast a vote. Under law, polling places must stay open to accommodate voters in line by 8 p.m., whether they’re inside or outside the polling place.
The primary originally was scheduled for April 28. However, when the coronavirus outbreak arrived in Pennsylvania in midMarch, state lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf agreed to a five-week delay, pushing the election to June 2. The first two cases of the virus were identified in Montgomery County on March 7.
Wolf said delaying the primary was in the best interests of voters, poll workers and county election officials.
But by late April, county officials realized the COVID-19 outbreak and its significant impact on seniors and on long-term care facilities was going to present some local challenges.
“Many of our normal polling places are in longterm care facilities or other senior congregate centers. None of those places are allowing us to come in,” Commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh said in late April. “Many of our poll workers have declined to participate in this election, and I want to be very clear, I support their decision. Many of these individuals are older and understandably don’t want to put themselves at personal risk, and I fully support that decision.”
The challenges prompted Arkoosh and Lawrence to send a letter to Wolf and Kathy Boockvar, who leads the Pennsylvania Department of State, requesting an all vote-by-mail election in the county. However, that plea went nowhere because it would have required legislation to effect that change.
However, last year, before the pandemic even surfaced, state officials for the first time said voters could obtain mail-in ballots without providing an excuse that was long-required for such ballots.
As the outbreak continued to grip the region and traditional poll workers began opting not to work this election cycle, the commissioners, acting as the county Board of Elections on May 11, voted 2-1 to temporarily reduce the number of polling places from 352 to 140, a reduction of 60%, for the primary.
Arkoosh and Lawrence voted in favor of the plan while Commissioner Joseph C. Gale opposed the final plan after an amendment he supported was not considered.
Officials moved polling places to empty public school buildings for the primary only. Most polling locations will host three or more precincts in one location.
“We are doing everything we can to hold a safe election for those who want to work at the polls and vote in-person,” Lawrence said. “School buildings provide a space for minimal exposure for voters, adequate parking and space for social distancing.”
Letters have been mailed to all households with eligible voters advising them of where to find their temporary polling place.
For more information about the primary and where to vote, residents can visit www.montcopa. org/voterservices
Voting equipment will be sanitized throughout the day, hand sanitizer will be provided and areas will be marked so that voters can maintain social distancing rules while waiting in line and filling out their ballots.
“To help minimize exposure and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at the polls, we are asking voters to wear protective face masks and bring their own black pen,” Lawrence added.
Arkoosh and Lawrence, the Democratic majority on the three-member commissioners’ board, urged voters who feared standing in crowded lines to cast ballots in-person to request mailin ballots, suggesting “that would be the safest thing.” The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot was May 26, and the ballots must be received by Voter Services by 8 p.m. June 2.
Lawrence said the county received 161,044 applications for mail-in ballots, compared to about 9,000 during the 2016 election.
But some residents reported receiving mail-in ballots with the incorrect party affiliation or wrong instructions, prompting election officials to have to resend corrected ballots. Officials said 1,984 incorrect ballots had been mailed out.
“We have over 70,000 ballots that are already in. They’re coming in every day, so that’s the focus. But can there be improvements for November? Absolutely, and there will be,” Lawrence said.
“There are quality control issues that were within our control that need to be corrected and cannot happen again. The issue of people getting (ballots) with the wrong party has nothing to do with the pandemic. It’s an error, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Lawrence added.
Gale was critical of mail-in voting for several months.
“I pointed out that it could be extremely problematic, and it turns out that it has been,” Gale, the lone Republican on the threemember commissioners’ board, said Friday. “There are thousands of voters that have not received their ballot yet. There are thousands of voters that have received incorrect ballots … that received instructions that were not correct. And this is very challenging for these voters because of the timesensitive nature of the upcoming election.”
When it became evident that mail delivery times were slower than normal during the COVID-19 crisis, five secure ballot dropoff boxes were installed throughout the county to help voters meet the June 2 deadline. Completed mail-in ballots and absentee ballots can be dropped off at the boxes through 8 p.m. June 2.
“Concerns over the spread of COVID-19 have created a high demand for mail-in voting and mail delivery times have been slower than normal,” Lawrence said. “Installing ballot drop-off boxes is another step we are taking to ensure ballots are returned to our office by the Election Day deadline.”
Secure ballot boxes are available at the following locations:
• In the lobby of One Montgomery Plaza at 425 Swede St., Norristown.
• Montgomery County Community Connections office at 421 W. Main St., Lansdale.
• Montgomery County Community College West Campus, South Hall, at 101 College Drive, Pottstown.
• Montgomery County’s Willow Grove Eastern Courthouse Annex, 102 N. York Road, Willow Grove.
• Green Lane Park at 2144 Snyder Road in Green Lane.
The buildup to the primary was fraught with sparring between the commissioners.
Gale repeatedly raised concerns about voting by mail. Gale said registered voters deserve the opportunity to cast their vote privately in person on Election Day without fear of their ballot being lost or manipulated.
“We should have never had this high volume of mail-in ballots. There was hysteria created all along this process around the coronavirus at an unnecessary high level. This is a historic level of mail-in ballots, and on top of this, this is the first time that we outsourced the handling and the mailing of mail-in ballots to voters,” said Gale, adding previously that work was handled by county Voter Services.
“Mail-in voting has been a total fiasco in every way possible,” Gale said, claiming the process is “far from easy and certainly not comforting to anyone who believes in a fair and accurate election.”
“On the contrary, I have been outspoken since day one that I do not trust the vote-by-mail process and have encouraged voters to honor their civic duty by going to the polls and casting their vote in-person on Election Day.
“After all, it is supposed to be Election Day, not election week, not election month but Election Day.”
Gale criticized the filing, on May 26, of a petition in the Court of Common Pleas requesting a seven-day extension for county Voter Services to receive and count mail-in ballots as long as they were postmarked by June 2. On Wednesday, a judge turned down that request, and the county filed a notice of appeal to the state Commonwealth Court, which was still pending Friday.
“Now they want to allow an extra week of counting for any and all mail-in ballots. This also means we may not know the outcome of the election on election night,” Gale said.
Gale added that mail-in balloting during the November general election, “with a nation waiting to find out who will be our president for the next four years, it is possible if not likely, that the country will be waiting all night if not all week for Montgomery County and Pennsylvania to finish counting votes.”
“This is why I urge Montgomery County residents to vote and vote in-person because mail-in voting cannot be trusted,” Gale said.
Lawrence emphasized the county followed the state election code and state law throughout the preparations.
“I think in some ways it was a perfect storm.” - Montgomery County Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr.