The chairwoman of the Butler County Democratic Committee attended the county commissioners meeting Wednesday to counter statements the Republican party's leader made two weeks ago and to share concerns about the Nov. 3 election.

Like county Republican Committee chairman Al Lindsay did on Feb. 4, Catherine Lalonde presented the commissioners with her written comments on the general election, in which she commended them and the elections bureau for forming an Election Review Board to study the countywide process used Nov. 3.

The statement included concerns about Republican poll watchers using “strike lists” at the polls, so they would know whether each Republican voter in their precinct had voted.

Lalonde said strike lists are permitted when the polls are not busy.

“It was my understanding that poll watchers were not to be utilizing strike lists for this election because it would likely interfere with voting,” Lalonde wrote.

She also said Republican poll watchers were directly asking voters for their names as they waited in line to vote, physically standing in front of the poll worker tables and slowing the voting process.

“In other instances, they were directly interrupting the judge of elections and poll workers to ascertain voter names,” Lalonde wrote.

She said GOP poll watchers also actively conversed with judges of elections and poll workers to determine names of voters who had surrendered their mail-in ballots.

Lalonde also said the Republican Committee's vice chairwoman, acting as a poll watcher, carried stacks of surrendered mail-in ballots to a table in the rear of a precinct, where she reviewed, sorted and stapled declarations to them.

She said the vice chairwoman worked on the ballots alone for about 50 minutes before bringing bundles back to the judge of election's table, leaving some paperwork unattended in the back of the precinct.

“She is not a poll worker,” Lalonde wrote. “She was poll watching for a political party.”

Republican vice chairwoman Trish Lindsay said just after the election that she had been a judge of elections in the Buffalo Township 1 precinct for 20 years, and that the current judge asked her to ensure each mail-in ballot at that poll had a surrender affidavit attached as required.

“I only touched the ballots that were going to be voided,” Trish Lindsay said in November.

She said a snafu like not having the proper documents attached to a surrendered mail-in ballot could extend the work at the poll by hours after the polls closed.

“It was just a record-keeping thing,” Lindsay said.

Lalonde also addressed Al Lindsay's complaint that some people in the precincts were wearing lanyards that said “voter protection.”

He told the commissioners Feb. 4 he was unclear who those people were or what role they assumed at the precincts.

Lalonde said Democratic Committee poll watchers were given the lanyards after intensive training by the state Democratic Committee.

She said her poll watchers introduced themselves to the judges of elections upon arriving at their designated precincts.

She said the Democratic poll watchers were told not to interrupt or address the judges of elections, poll workers or voters unless a specific voter issue needed to be addressed.

She also shared concerns with the commissioners regarding uncertainty about the process for dealing with surrendered mail-in ballots and use of provisional versus regular ballots at the polls.

“Many of the judges of elections were unsure of correct procedure,” Lalonde wrote. “This by far was the biggest challenge of the day.”

She said her team had to contact the elections bureau on several occasions for a request to intervene with a call to a judge of elections when an issue could not be resolved by a poll watcher raising a concern.

Lalonde pointed out other concerns her committee had with the Nov. 3 election, including long lines, a lack of trained poll workers, last minute placement of judges of elections who were without training, scanning of mail-in ballots at the elections bureau, voters receiving emails that their ballots were sent long before they were actually sent and ballots reported lost at the post office.

Lalonde concluded her comments by commending county officials for their hard work in unusual circumstances.

Both the county Republican and Democratic committees are represented on the Election Review Board.

Leslie Osche, commissioners chairwoman, said she is looking forward to the upcoming Election Review Board meeting.

The Election Review Board is expected to release a report in late March.