Last week, this column made observations on the recent election results. This week we want to review some ways that the election process can be improved. First and foremost, hats off to Forrest K. Lehman, Lycoming County Director of Elections and Registration, Jill Shuman, Assistant Director, and clerks Mary-Kay Camp and Susan Johnson, who must coordinate this massive event annually. The professionalism out of this small department is outstanding.

As Director Lehman likes to say, “Every year is an election year.” And there was no year quite like this year. It started with the special election for the 12th Congressional District, which was part of the primary in May. It continued with the new voting system introduced for the recent general election. There were lots of concerns about the new ClearVote system, which consisted of a paper ballot that was then placed into a ClearCast ballot scanner. Forty-five of the 67 counties in the state used this system (all will have ClearCast online by the primary election in 2020, by the way), and the ‘official’ message out of Harrisburg was that there were few difficulties. Yet, it was undeniable that there were issues throughout the state, mostly related to not enough scanners and malfunctions. These were especially noted in York, Mercer, and Northampton Counties. In fact, in Northampton, the officials had to rescan all the ballots due to machine troubles.

Forrest Lehman noted that out of the 85 voting districts in the county, only two reported any problems, and these were quickly resolved. Out of nearly 26,000 ballots cast, there were perhaps two-dozen glitches. Much of the smoothness of this election can be attributed to the training that the poll workers received, and the quick response of the Department of Voter Services when problems arose on Election Day.

We should not take for granted how enormous the task is to conduct an election in Lycoming County. First, the county covers a lot of ground, the largest in geographical size in the entire state. It is composed of a third-class city, Williamsport, and 51 other boroughs and townships. Each of these incorporated municipalities has a list of elected offices that result in some 300 different elections that were on ballots in these various precincts on November 5th.

Forrest Lehman and his staff, along with a small army of poll workers, must ensure that all the voters are able to cast their ballots and that these will be tabulated accurately. That is the keyword — accuracy. Unfortunately, most want the results expediently! But here is the rub. Out of those 300 elections, there are write-ins in almost every one of them, and these need to be manually read. Picture this task — manually reviewing 26,000 ballots!

In many cases, write-ins for offices had no candidate on the ballot. This becomes an enormous headache for Forrest Lehman and his staff. For example, imagine a small township that has an election for auditor. There may be a couple of dozen different names listed because folks write in the name of a friend or even their own name so that it is not left blank. Yet, each of these has to listed, and if there is a tie, these individuals must be notified and brought in to conduct a tie-vote drawing. All of this could be avoided if voters only used write-ins for serious candidates, and these candidates would run in the primaries and get their names on the ballot. Write-ins are certainly legal, but they are also the reason why we must wait weeks after the election for the “official” results.

Some big legislative changes are going to help improve the voting process in 2020. Act 77 of 2019, has been called by Governor Wolf as the most significant improvement to Pennsylvania’s elections in more than 80 years. Our local state representative Garth Everett was very active in providing input to this legislation. Among the changes that will begin with next year’s primary election will be to allow voters to register just 15 days before the election rather than the current 30 days, and allowing absentee or mail-in ballots without an excuse, which can be for all primary, general, and special elections held in a given year. The biggest change, perhaps, will be the elimination of the straight-party ticket voting. Pennsylvania was one of only five states in the country that still have the straight-party option.

A free election is one of the greatest privileges we have in a democracy. We should hold it in high esteem. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

Larry Stout welcomes your comments or input. He can be reached by email: lionwebbweekly@gmail.com.