Karen Shuey: Still few answers on electronic poll book problems in Berks election

May 18—Primary election day in Berks County was, at least for a while, somewhat chaotic.

And county elections officials are still searching for answers about what went wrong, with the head of the elections board calling the situation a "monumental failure."

A technical programming issue with the new electronic poll books the county was putting into widespread use sent election officials scrambling. The issue was discovered shortly after polls opened at 7 a.m., and a decision was quickly made to switch to the backup paper poll books.

But those books weren't on hand at the polls.

Instead, they were inside the vehicles of roving election workers who were traveling from polling location to polling location. The rovers were instructed to deliver the poll books as quickly as possible.

But with 202 precincts across the county, that took some time.

The result was that some polling locations saw delays in the voting process — despite orders from the elections office for judges of elections not to interrupt voting while they awaited the paper books — and some voters being asked to fill out provisional ballots instead of casting ballots on voting machines.

The poll book issue and the confusion it caused led the county's Democratic and Republican committees to join forces and petition the courts to extend voting by one hour. On Tuesday afternoon, Berks County Judge James M. Lillis issued an order that kept polls open until 9 p.m.

Voters who arrived at the poll between the original closing time of 8 p.m. and the new closing time of 9 p.m. were able to cast provisional ballots.

County spokeswoman Stephanie Weaver said Wednesday that the county has identified the issue, but needs clear answers as to what exactly happened, why it happened and what needs to be done to make certain it does not happen again.

As a result, she said the county is hiring outside counsel to conduct a thorough investigation of any and all issues regarding the election. When the investigation is complete, a full report will be presented publicly.

Weaver said she has no timeline on when that investigation might be complete and that the county will not be providing any further comment on the matter until the investigation has concluded.

When asked if new elections director Paige Riegner — who was overseeing her first election after being appointed to the post in late February — was available to discuss Tuesday's election, Weaver said Riegner was not and that all media inquiries should be directed to her.

Commissioner Vice Chairman Kevin Barnhardt on Wednesday called the issues with the poll books a "monumental failure."

He said that from a business perspective the county needs to step up and figure out what it can do to make sure a problem like what happened Tuesday doesn't happen again.

"We need to find out how this happened and what steps we take to correct this from happening in the future," he said. "We have to find someone who doesn't have a dog in the fight to come in and find out what systems did and did not work."

Barnhardt, who serves as the chairman of the election board, said the county held several training sessions for the judges of elections of the 202 polling locations but that rolling out new equipment was bound to come with challenges.

"No rollout goes picture perfect," he said.

The electronic poll books are updated in real time on a closed system and resemble a tablet computer. They are loaded with the full list of registered voters for a particular precinct and were to replace the paper rosters of registered voters at each precinct.

The commissioners bought 440 electronic poll books last year for $1.1 million from Election Systems & Software. The devices have been certified by state election officials, but counties were encouraged to try them on a pilot basis before widespread implementation.

An email to an ES&S representative requesting comment about the issues experienced in Berks on election day was not immediately returned.

The county tested the books at five voting locations during the fall.

Because Tuesday was the first time the books were to be used at all precincts, the election board voted in April to have the printed poll books created as a last resort in case something went awry with the electronic versions.

Commissioners out of town

Two of the county's three commissioners were not in Berks during Tuesday's election.

Weaver confirmed Wednesday that neither Chairman Christian Leinbach nor Barnhardt were in the county. She said Leinbach is attending a conference hosted by the National Association of Counties while Barnhardt was out of town.

Barnhardt said by phone Wednesday that he is on a personal trip. He said he was in constant contact with election officials on Tuesday.

Weaver echoed Barnhardt's comment, saying the physical absences of Leinbach and Barnhardt did not mean they weren't involved in addressing the issues that arose.

Weaver stressed that the commissioners were made aware of the problems with the electronic poll books from the very beginning and were in constant contact with the elections staff about how to proceed.

She added that the commissioners were in full agreement the county should switch from the electronic poll books to paper books when it became clear there were problems.

Provisional, mail ballots being counted

Vote totals posted on the county's election website are far from complete.

The total includes all the votes cast in-person on voting machines on Tuesday, as well as mail ballots that were received before Monday. However, provisional ballots — including those cast between 8 and 9 p.m. Tuesday — and mail ballots received on Monday and Tuesday are not included.

Weaver said that there are between 4,000 and 5,000 mail ballots still to be counted. She did not have a total number of provisional ballots cast or information on how many voters cast a provisional ballot during the election's extra hour.

Turnout

Turnout for Tuesday's primary election currently stands at 25.8%. That includes all in-person votes cast on machines and the mail ballots received by the county before Monday.

Weaver said of those who voted, 61.1% were Republican and 38.9% were Democrats.

She said the results posted on the county elections website Wednesday reflect about 68,000 votes — about 57,000 cast at the polls on election day and 10,200 mail ballots.

Tuesday's numbers were up from the last midterm primary election in 2018. In that election, 38,770 voters cast ballots, which equates to a turnout rate of slightly more than 18%.