State legislators were guided through nine priority recommendations Friday of a bipartisan commission formed to study the 2020 presidential election in Butler County.

“Uniformity is required in the Pennsylvania Constitution,” said Patrick LeMay, an election judge for 16 years in Butler Township and a member of the Butler County Election Commission. “We don't think the current law does that.”

The commission was created in January by the county commissioners to identify strengths and weaknesses of the state Election Code and changes brought by Act 77 following a contentious 2020 presidential election heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members began meeting in February with Aaron Sheasley, county director of elections and voter registration, and after nine sessions their findings were released Friday.

In addition to LeMay, Commissioners Leslie Osche, chairwoman, Kim Geyer and Kevin Boozel met with state Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, Rep. Tim Bonner, R-8th, and Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, following the county chamber's Legislative Breakfast at the Butler County Club.

“We will make Butler County findings known through the House and, with Scott, in the Senate,” Bonner said, adding the legislature plans to address the issue in mid-June.

Ways to vote

The commission recommended providing a “Right to Know” guide outlining the four options county residents have to vote: in-person on Election Day, mail-in ballots, early in-person and provisional.

“There are four pathways to vote. Each has its own risk and vulnerability,” Geyer said. Informed voters can then choose the best path for them, she said.

The report pointed out that those who vote in-person sign a poll book and that signature can be challenged by a poll watcher. Mail-in voters sign the affidavit on the outside envelope, but the state court ruled that the mail-in ballot cannot be rejected based on a signature mismatch.

An in-person voter whose ballot is rejected by the scanner has the opportunity to complete a new ballot. A mail-in voter whose ballot is rejected does not have the opportunity.

“You are treating voters different again,” LeMay said.

Timing

According to the commission, Butler County saw a 20% increase in registered voters in the unprecedented 2020 election.

The implementation of “no excuse” mail-in and absentee ballots added stress to the system. Voters had up to seven days before the election to apply for a ballot or to vote in-person.

The commission is recommending extending that deadline to 14 days; state committees are recommending 15 days, Hutchinson said.

The bureau staff processed as many as 52,000 applications received online and by mail. According to the report, there were 40,000 single applicants; however, the county received 12,000 duplicate applications because of forms mailed to voters by a third party.

“By the time we got a certified ballot, we were just a month out,” Osche said.

Ballots still had to be printed, placed in the proper envelopes and sent.

Events affected voter interaction with the bureau. After a U.S. Postal Service truck with ballots was reported delayed in October, voters started calling. The county set up a call center to handle demands. It received more than 30,000 calls in October and, on one day, the center took more than 2,000 calls in a four-hour period.

Bureau staff had to redirect their efforts; as many as 10,000 ballots were canceled and new ones issued, according to the report. Other voters decided to take more direct action.

“The trust factor tanked,” Geyer said. “People began bringing their ballots to the polls.”

Deep dive

The 31-page report dives deep into the process and circumstances that tested it. It covers equipment, staffing, training and includes a detailed timeline.

Items that caused concern or confusion during the election included voters who turned in their mailed ballots to vote at the polls. The commission recommends reversing the provision in Act 12 that allows surrendering mail-in/absentee ballots at the polls or using provisional ballots if voters are still permitted to do so.

Poll books, which are sealed until the day of the election, were also an issue. Formatting changes placed mail-in voters in the back instead of in alphabetical order with other voters, and some names were dropped, legislators were told.

“People showed up at the polls. They were not in the poll book and they were turned away,” Osche said.

The commission recommends the poll books be formatted using greyed out boxes and no signature lines for voters whose ballots were returned by mail.

Among other recommendations were a more transparent auditing process by a third party; a plan for public emergencies; and a security framework and compliance standards for technology.

The commission also recommended robust testing of tabulation software that uses USB flash drives. Butler County, along with Armstrong, Allegheny and Mercer, uses the ES&S system. The county experienced a tabulation error during the certification process, but identified and corrected the problem, commissioners said.

The commission also recommended legislation that changes election procedure or code during a state of emergency that requires the approval of both executive and legislative branches and have well-defined communication guidelines.

Diverse group

Twelve people in addition to the three county commissioners made up the bipartisan committee.

“A good, diverse group,” LeMay said, noting only Butler County conducted such a review.

The group included representatives from rural and urban areas, and among the members were a farmer, lawyer, cyber security expert and a teacher.

“People took it seriously,” LeMay said.

In addition to LeMay and the commissioners, members included Patrick Casey of Butler, Donald Cunningham of Cherry Township, Dayle Ferguson of Adams Township, Mark Mann of Center Township, Carol Mills McCarthy of Jefferson Center, Erma Mowry of Penn Township, Renea Pomeroy of Mars, Sharon Russell of Cranberry Township, Jason Yasment of Mercer Township and Edward Natali and Tony Stagno, both of Butler Township.