Two allegations of potential election code violations in Berks County have been turned over to local authorities for investigation.
At a meeting of the board of elections Thursday, Chief Operations Officer Kevin Barnhardt presented the two incidents.
The first was initially brought to the attention of the board last week when an individual spoke about it during the public comment portion of the meeting. The person read a letter from someone she said was her neighbor.
The woman did not say why the letter writer did not come to the meeting.
The letter stated that its writer was approached by someone on the street who identified themselves as a member of the advocacy organization Make the Road Pennsylvania. The alleged representative asked the letter writer if she is registered to vote.
The letter writer replied that she had registered shortly after becoming a naturalized citizen this past spring.
The alleged Make the Road representative then asked if she would like to share who she is voting for, and the letter writer said that even though she is a registered Democrat she would be casting a ballot for former President Donald Trump.
The letter writer said the alleged representative then told her that she should check to see if she can actually vote in this election because someone must be a citizen for at least a year before being allowed to vote.
Current law states that a new citizen can vote one month after being naturalized.
The letter writer said the alleged Make the Road representative later called her to ask if she was still voting for Trump, stating falsely that she would not be allowed to as a registered Democrat. The letter writer said she immediately contacted her neighbor who verified that she was registered to vote and that she could vote for Trump.
In a general election voters can choose any candidate, regardless of party affiliation.
Barnhardt said the accusation may constitute a case of voter intimidation and recommended the matter be turned over to the district attorney’s office for further investigation.
The board agreed, voting unanimously to forward the issue to law enforcement.
Officials from Make the Road could not immediately be reached for comment.
The second incident involved claims of someone attempting to illegally collect completed ballots.
It was brought to the attention of the elections office through a complaint from a voter who said they tried to drop off their completed mail ballot at the elections office on Oct. 14. However, the office was closed in observance of Columbus Day.
The voter was approached by someone standing outside the Berks County Services Center who said they could take their mail ballot and turn it in when the office was open.
Barnhardt said such an action is in direct violation of the election code and he recommended the matter be turned over to the district attorney’s office for further investigation.
The alleged incident was captured by surveillance cameras. Barnhardt did not say if the person in question has been identified or if they were successful in collecting any ballots from voters.
The board voted unanimously to forward the issue to law enforcement.
Also at the meeting, the board discussed the latest development in a case involving the delivery of two large envelopes to the elections office containing a total of 24 mail ballots belonging to residents of a nursing home.
Citing election law that a person cannot submit a ballot belonging to someone else, the matter was previously forwarded to the district attorney for investigation.
First Assistant County Solicitor Cody Kauffman reported that county detectives had an opportunity to look into the incident and found there was no evidence of intentional wrongdoing.
“This incident appears to be a product of ignorance of the law as opposed to any nefarious intent on behalf of the nursing home facility or anyone at the nursing home facility,” he told the board.
Kauffman said detectives found that the voters to whom the ballots belonged followed the proper procedure in place at the facility when attempting to mail their ballots.
“I think this is a unique and limited circumstance,” he said. “The residents followed the process on their end to mail the ballots and it appears there was no nefarious intent by the person who mailed the envelopes. I would not object to counting these ballots.”
Commissioner Michael Rivera, who serves as chairman of the board, said this issue brings up other situations in which mail is handled in a similar manner.
For instance, those residing at the Berks County Jail or Berks Heim Nursing Home are not physically putting their ballots in mailboxes. In those cases voters likely place their ballots in an area designated for outgoing mail.
He said that from that perspective he is inclined to believe that if a voter follows a process like that they are not knowingly breaking the law.
Commissioner Christian Leinbach said ignorance of the law is not an excuse to not follow the law, adding he was not prepared to decide whether to count the ballots. He said he wanted more information about the incident before deciding.
“I need more detail to understand what happened,” he said.
Commissioner Dante Santoni Jr. said he understood the concern but pointed out that time is of the essence.
“There are only 12 days until the election,” he said. “I err on the side of franchising voters. I know the law is what it is, but the discussion indicated there is an opportunity to count those ballots.”
Santoni then made a motion to accept the ballots in question.
Rivera said based on the time constraints he would be voting in favor of counting the ballots. He said that if the county would decide to cancel those ballots and reissue them there may not be enough time to receive them by the deadline.
Lainbach put forth an amendment to reissue the ballots with clear direction about what the law allows when it comes to who can mail a ballot.
The amendment failed to garner support from his colleagues, and the motion passed 2-1, with Leinbach dissenting.
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