During the comments section at the end of the Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting on April 19th, the subject of election integrity came up again. Pennsylvania’s 2020 election has been an ongoing hot topic in the Commonwealth, with various lawsuits and even a proposal by Republican legislators for a forensic audit into that election’s results.
To date, actual evidence of fraud from that election that has resulted in prosecution has been minuscule. Domenick Demuro, a Judge of Elections in Philadelphia and a Democratic ward leader, was prosecuted in 2021, but this was for accepting bribes to add fraudulent ballots to voting machines and falsely certifying election results for certain Democrat candidates in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections. There were three others prosecuted for the 2020 election violations: Bruce Barman for falsely registering two absentee ballots for deceased relatives, Robert Lynn for voting for an absentee ballot for his deceased mother, and Ralph Thurman for voting twice. All three of these men were voting for Trump.
Is election integrity a serious problem in America? The answer is yes — and no. The voting process has controls and is designed with lots of safeguards for fair elections and is considered by experts as one of the most secure in the world. Ironically, these preventative measures have come about as a result of electoral controversies. The 21st century began with a wild presidential election. Al Gore had over half a million more votes than George W. Bush but was behind in the electoral ballot count. It all came down to the 25 electoral votes in Florida. Whoever would win that state would win the election. Bush led by 1,784 votes that resulted in an automatic recount under Florida state law, and after three weeks, the recount still came out for Bush, albeit now down to 537 votes. Legal challenges followed from the Democratic side, filing lawsuits and challenges that eventually went all the way to the US Supreme Court. It was not until December 12th that they ruled 5-4 that the voting was valid, and thus Bush’s victory was secured. (This resulted in the disparaging moniker given to President George Bush — he was selected, not elected.)
The election of 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon could have gone that same direction and possibly have resulted in Nixon beating Kennedy. JFK’s popular vote margin was just over 100,000 votes out of 70 million cast. To Nixon’s credit, he conceded rather than contesting the election results because he felt it would hurt the country to do so. Though historians go back and forth on this, had Nixon challenged, he might well have won. Texas, in particular, which was the home state of Vice President candidate Lyndon B. Johnson, might have inflated their count by as much as 100,000. (He won by 46,000 votes in Texas). Kennedy won Illinois by 0.2 percent of the vote count, with some precincts in Chicago casting more votes than registered voters.
John F. Kennedy’s father was a shameless scammer. After serving in World War II with distinction, John was more interested in journalism than politics, but his father told him he had to run for office. Just 29 years old, Papa Joe convinced his son that state office was too low for him; he needed to go to Washington, D.C. He convinced him to run for Massachusetts’ 11th congressional district in 1946. Despite his charm and war heroics, Kennedy was a terrible campaigner, so Papa Joe ensured his son’s election by finding a man with the same name as the incumbent and paid him handsomely to go on the ballot. Two identical names for the same office confused the voters and thus split the vote and ensured JFK’s victory. His hand was all over the 1960 election, and when his son commented that the vote was dangerously close, he responded, “I only paid for a victory, not a landslide.”
It should not be a shock that, like everything else that humans touch, elections are susceptible to the morally challenged. It is easy to be cynical about American elections, but those who have followed this column will be familiar with the highest regard the commissioners and state election officials have for the Lycoming County’s Office of Voter Services and its director, Forrest Lehman. Their professionalism is shown in the respect that their office receives from their peers in other counties throughout the state.
We should recognize that a “perfect” election has never happened. But the team that Forrest Lehman leads in the Office of Voter Services is as close to ‘perfect’ as any county in the state and perhaps the country. For example, the 2021 election triggered an automatic recount due to the fact that two of the races for Commonwealth Court were within 0.5 percent. The tiny team that runs the Office of Voter Services recounted over 23,000 votes cast and found TWO that were miscounted, a simple human error of one vote each from two precincts. Any organization or company that would achieve 99.99 percent accuracy would go home happy. So should the citizens of Lycoming County — our votes count — and are counted honestly and accurately.
One last comment on elections: The Lycoming County Board of Elections has sent out a media release concerning two political advocacy groups, the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and the Center for Voter Information (CVI) will be conducting direct mailings to Pennsylvania residents consisting of voter registration applications and/or mail ballot applications. These mailings are NOT affiliated with or endorsed by the Lycoming County Board of Elections. Apparently, these are going out to all residents. To be removed from the list requires notifying these agencies; VPC at 866-377-7304 and CVI at 877-203-6551.
