The Butler County Government Center’s public meeting room was jam packed with people last night to hear the county commissioners at an election forum.
During the two hour session, the commissioners answered pre-written questions from both Republicans and Democrats in regards to their concerns about the 2020 election.
Some of the specific issues that were addressed, and explained included alleged fraud, mail-in ballots, and election law. Essentially, there was no significant fraud was found in the county according to commissioners.
One of the areas of fraud that was investigated included a poll watcher that saw a longtime judge of elections in one precinct that refused to use a new green provisional ballot. The county’s solicitor Wil White said there was merit to the allegations because no provisional ballots were ever returned from that precinct. Through an investigation, the judge of elections confirmed that he didn’t use the provisional ballots and resigned. However, this didn’t impact any votes.
There was also an increase in the number of people on the voter rolls in 2020. According to commissioners, this happened due to a data entry error where an incorrect parameter was entered adding as many as 6,000 inactive voters onto the voter rolls. Commissioners said this mistake was not easily correctable, and those people were left on the voters rolls in the election. However, only eight of those formerly inactive voters cast a ballot in the 2020 election.
The commissioners detailed the process of what happened when mail-in ballots were delayed in being delivered to voters. They said that the Postal Service took the mail to Pittsburgh in order to be processed before coming back Butler. That happened over Columbus Day weekend, resulting in much longer than expected delays. White said video evidence from that day showed the ballots leaving the county government building and going to the Butler Post Office on the corner of Main and Wayne in Downtown Butler.
The commissioners also reiterated the fact that the county has not, and does not plan to use drop-off boxes for ballots.
The commissioners conceded that the election process can definitely be improved,
“We’re going to stay on it. But, there’s not one fell swoop or quick action that we can take right away. For every action, there’s a reaction. And there’s implications for every move we make. We have to be thoughtful about it,” Commissioner Leslie Osche said.
Commissioner Kevin Boozel said he believed the 2020 election was fair and just, but also said there’s room for improvement. “I do believe there’s room for improvement and I’m here to make it happen, as much as I can. Commissioner Leslie Osche has alluded that she has testified, I have testified too. We’ve been involved with our county commissioners association and state legislature to make sure they understand the stressors that are being put down by these changes,” Boozel said.
Commissioner Kim Geyer also said she appreciated the public’s response and passion on election integrity. She did say that she was open to exploring a cost-benefit analysis of moving to an all paper ballot counting system.
The full powerpoint detailing the county’s findings and research is available at ButlerCountyPA.gov.
