Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Election criticism dominates county meeting
Gale calls his own party 'part of the problem'
Montgomery County’s election protocols came under fire Thursday morning as area residents came out to express their frustrations with top elected officials.
Voting processes dominated the public comment portion of Thursday’s Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting as people alleged mistrust and shared concerns about previous elections.
“Many voters feel their vote doesn’t count, and tell us they won’t bother voting,” said Montgomery County Republican Party Chairwoman Liz Preate Havey. “Members of this board have made it clear they want as much participation in the voting process as possible.”
“Everyone who can legally vote should vote, right?” she continued. “If that is what you truly believe, then taking actions or inactions that effectively suppress the vote are unacceptable.”
Havey was one of 10 members of the public who spoke during Thursday’s meeting. The majority gave their public comments in person on the eighth floor of One Montgomery Plaza in downtown Norristown. A handful of others spoke remotely via Zoom.
“This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is a Pennsylvania issue. This is a Montgomery County issue,” said Horsham Township resident Clarice Schillinger. “I ask that you come together bipartisanly to install trust and security within our election system.”
While some public commenters’ political affiliations were not identified, several offered support on behalf of the Republican party.
Havey presented a report to county commissioners for their consideration. The contents of that report were not immediately made public.
“Our hope is that Montgomery County, as well as all the southeastern county election boards will review and implement these requests to ensure our elections are efficient, transparent and uniform moving forward,” Havey said.
Havey cited “various issues that created great distrust in the system among many voters” that included “thousands of incorrectly printed ballots (and) voters receiving the wrong mail-in ballots.”
Several commenters took issue with drop boxes.
“The drop boxes have been left unsecure, and allowing for the opportunity for illegal ballot harvesting must be addressed. Illegal ballot harvesting is happening,” Schillinger said. “It is a fact, it’s not a conspiracy.”
Havey shared similar concerns as she gave an account of her committee’s experience dealing with the county’s election board.
“The Republican committee has documented hundreds of complaints from voters, and has observed firsthand deficiencies in our election procedures in Montgomery County including gross abuse of the drop boxes,” Havey said. “A review of just a few hours of surveillance at one dropbox produced over 100 people dropping multiple ballots, including one woman dropping handfuls of ballots, which is clearly against the law.”
“We requested that the county provide security guards at dropboxes and were denied,” she continued. “We asked if the county would be reviewing the surveillance video, and were told no. And when we requested the surveillance footage, we were provided months after our request with data in an unusable format with the exception of the footage of just one of those boxes.”
East Norriton Township resident Kim Henderson and New Hanover Township resident Barabra Furman stressed that “we the people demand a full forensic audit” concerning the 2020 and 2021 election cycles.
Upper Salford Township resident Kurt Stein gave another perspective.
“I’m here to speak also about the election process, and what it involves, but I’m going to take a different spin to it in regards to what the other speakers have done,” Stein said. “Historically, absentee ballots before we got into the mail-in ballot process were all given to the precincts, and the precincts were responsible for the tabulation of those. That has changed.”
“It can be done in a much more efficient manner,” he said. “Make the precincts accountable to the voters in their area. They know who
lives there.”
Several people expressed further frustration with the county’s top elected officials.
“Joe, you’re running for office and you say nothing. We see that,” Henderson said, referring to Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale, who is a gubernatorial candidate.
Gale, the board’s sole Republican politician, took aim at Havey’s proposal after public comment wrapped up.
“This report that’s been given to us by the Montgomery County Republican Committee — this could be very simplified; it doesn’t have to be a full report,” he said. “It can say ‘repeal Act 77,’ which is the unconstitutional mail-in voting legislation that gave us 50 days of no excuse mail-in voting, the longest vote-by-mail period of time in the entire nation, and was passed unconstitutionally by every single Republican state senator.”
Gale asserted his continued criticism of the state legislation and stressed that he opposed certifications of the 2020 and 2021 election results.
“And all of you, including Liz Preate Havey, the chair of the Montgomery County Republican Committee, remained silent and in fact you endorsed candidates that voted for it,” he said.
Gale took aim at his party, calling Havey “a hypocrite” and describing the forum as “a staged effort to make it look like you’re doing something.”
A person in the audience then interjected with an objection.
Gale could be seen pointing at the person and saying “yeah you’re a political hack, and so are a lot of the others in this room.”
“So this is something I’ve been talking about, and I wish the Montgomery County Republican party would back me up when I was speaking about this,” Gale said. “But now it’s too little too late, and you’re trying to look like you’re doing something about it, and you all should be ashamed of yourselves. You’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.”
Pennsylvania’s upcoming primary election is slated to take place on May 17. The deadline to register to vote
is May 2 and voters have until May 10 to request a mailin ballot. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on May 17 for those voting in person on Election Day.
“Everyone should be committed to running fair, safe and secure elections. Montgomery County did so in both 2020 and 2021,” Montgomery County Election Board Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. told MediaNews Group Thursday afternoon. “I will consider any rational suggestion to improve election processes but reject the Big Lie and all other conspiracy theories based on fiction not facts.”
For more information about elections in Montgomery County, visit the county’s Office of Voter Services at online at montcopa. org/voterservices or call 610-278-3280. The department is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and is located at 425 Swede St., Suite 602, in Norristown.
Havey did not immediately respond to MediaNews Group’s request for comment about what was in the report she gave commissioners.