Elections bureau building creates inconveniences while preparing for recount
With a recount set to happen for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race at the Butler County Bureau of Elections building, Common Pleas Judge S. Michael Yeager had to allow slight accommodations in the observation process Tuesday, Nov. 19.
The judge, working with county solicitor Julie Graham to accommodate both parties, allowed for one member of each party to be present in the room during logic and accuracy testing of the ballot machines.
Logic and accuracy testing occurs when election officials use sample ballots to test that the machines are counting ballots properly.
During the observation of ballot counting, each party is allowed to have two observers, plus each candidate is entitled to one representative. They are to stand behind a glass window in the elections bureau building and look into the room where ballots are put into a machine and counted.
Observers faced several issues. For one, they would have to remain standing at the observer window all day, without anywhere to sit. The bigger issue was not being able to hear what was happening inside the main room during the logic and accuracy testing.
“The building has a set of challenges, and we are aware of those challenges. The space we use is somewhat limited inside,” county Commissioner Leslie Osche said. “It works for observation because it keeps our election workers safe. It has bulletproof glass originally meant for the magistrate office.”
Osche told the Butler Eagle the judge helped come to the conclusion of allowing one member of each side in the main room during the logic and accuracy testing before going back into the observation area.
Jim Hulings, chairman of the Butler County Republican Committee, contacted the Butler Eagle Tuesday and said he believed there were issues surrounding the logic and accuracy testing.
Catherine Lalonde, chairwoman of the Butler County Democratic Committee, said she was at the county elections bureau from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m., and nobody was trying to block anyone from observing the ballot counting. She said Republican observers were not happy because they could not hear anything from the other side of the glass.
Ryan Martin, a member of the state Republican committee, said he was at the elections bureau to make sure everything played out smoothly. He said he was disappointed by the slight delay in vote counting, but he understood Graham’s perspective in wanting a judge’s decision.
Martin also said the two parties initially had compromised to allow for one person from each party in the main room, but Graham was following precedent by not allowing observers beyond the glass window.
Graham assured the Butler Eagle that “the Election Bureau was very accommodating with everybody present.”
Osche also said the solicitor explained if a ballot was “kicked out,” and the machine could not read its marking, it went to a “two-person adjudication” to look at it and determine its vote, due to the deadline for challenges having past.
Osche said the county commissioners had discussed up through Tuesday morning whether there was another possible location for vote counting operations, but they just couldn't do it on such short notice, in addition to having to move election equipment currently stored in the building.
“We will have this resolved before the next election, but we just moved the magistrate out, and we haven’t even started the rest of the remodeling (of the Election Bureau building,)” Osche said. “These are things we are going to have to take into consideration.”
The observation is part of an upcoming recount in the race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick. An automatic recount was triggered with the race being decided by less than 0.5% of votes.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how complex it is. People can’t even tell you the complexities of elections these days,” Osche said.
This article was updated Nov. 21 to indicate that the recount had not officially started at the time of this article. The work being done was in preparation of the recount.
