The county commissioners at their Wednesday meeting defended the ES&S voting machines decried as hackable and nefarious by the proponents of a forensic audit of the 2020 election who have attended the last several meetings.

Fred Hensel, who asked to appear on the meeting agenda to request that electronic voting machines be removed in all future elections, told the commissioners that former President Donald Trump should have won the 2020 election because 9,900 new Republican voters versus 1,300 new Democratic voters registered for the election, yet Trump won the county by the same margin he did in 2016.

Hensel also said hacking can happen in many industries, suggesting the ES&S machines were compromised during the 2020 general election.

“The only way to eliminate the chance of hacking is to eliminate the machines,” Hensel said.

Hensel proposed the county elections bureau use a “numerical, registered ballot” with serial numbers, which he said could be more efficiently tracked.

He proposed that the ballots be printed on “special paper” that is not available to the public, much like U.S. paper currency, and that each voter should get a copy of his or her ballot to take home on election day.

Leslie Osche, commissioners chairwoman, asked Hensel how the ballots would be counted.

“They count them manually, I think,” Hensel said. “I don't know ... I'm still digging into this.”

Osche asked Hensel how ballots would be hand-counted in a timely fashion, and Hensel replied that he has volunteers.

The group advocating for a forensic audit of the election then broke into applause and cheers.

He said one Republican and one Democrat and a moderator could be present when a precinct's votes are counted and the votes could be stored.

“We know the machines got hacked,” Hensel said.

Osche asked Hensel if he is aware of the process to close polls on election nights or if he has talked to any judges of elections to ask how it works.

“Not yet,” Hensel replied.

He added that an internet search of ES&S “corruption or scandals,” results in “a multitude of hits.”

Osche then asked Aaron Sheasley, director of the county bureau of elections, if there is a modem in the vote scanners used in the precincts.He replied there is not and proceeded to explain that each precinct's judges of elections open the packs of shrink-wrapped ballots in the morning on election day.The ballots include a stub with a perforation, Sheasley said.After a voter signs the pollbook, he or she is handed a ballot that has been torn at the perforation, and the voter uses a pencil to fill in the circle on the paper ballot beside the candidates they choose.The voter then walks to a scanner that is monitored by a pollworker who does not touch the ballot.The voter feeds the ballot into the scanner.“It drops into a box that is inaccessible until the end of the day,” Sheasley said.He said the boxes are locked and sealed before being driven to the elections bureau.Sheasley said the number of voters on the books at a precinct is reconciled against the number of votes cast.There are sometimes discrepancies caused by “fleeing voters,” which Sheasley said are voters who leave the precinct and do not cast their ballot.The ballots are then driven to the elections bureau by a judge of elections and minority inspector, who must sign off on the reconciliation and ride in the same car without making stops before reaching the elections bureau.If they are not present at the bureau by 2 a.m., Sheasley said, sheriff's deputies are dispatched to find them.Upon further questioning by Osche, Sheasley said a judge of elections would notice if something were amiss due to the reconciliation after the poll closed.He said judges of elections routinely check the number of ballots cast against the voter books during the course of Election Day.Commissioner Kim Geyer asked Sheasley if any judge of election or other pollworkers communicated to him any concerns, issues or problems with their reconciliations on Election Day in November.He said other than requests to look over their math because of the long working day involved in Election Day, none had any suspicions or concerns.“They are very involved in this,” Sheasley said of judges of elections' efforts on Election Day. “They are very proud to do this.”

Osche also explained the process through which the commissioners and elections bureau purchased the ES&S machines in 2019.She said due to court action resulting from a suit by Green Party candidate Jill Stein regarding her 2016 results, Pennsylvania went from electronic to paper ballots in all 67 counties.The state only certified a small number of vendors, all of whom presented their products to the county elections representatives.Osche said the judges of elections were invited to try out all the machines. The judges completed a survey on each vendor's models, which included security questions.“We took their recommendation,” Osche said.She said the judges of election are elected by the voters of their precincts, so the commissioners must trust them.“Well, mistakes are made,” Hensel said.Sheasley said the voting equipment is certified by a third-party group of technical experts in every state in the United States.“There's two different certifications that happen before we even touch this equipment,” Sheasley said.

Geyer said the state House of Representatives' government committee panel approved an amendment to the state constitution that would require voters to show identification, mandate watermarks be placed on all paper ballots, that ballots be available for the public to view for two years after an election, and that authority in an election be switched from the governor to the Pennsylvania Department of State.The amendment also would prohibit counties from accepting funds from outside people or groups, and that the state auditor general be required to audit each election before it is certified by the Department of State.Osche made a motion, which was approved unanimously, that the matter of the ES&S voting machines be referred to the county Election Review Commission, created by the commissioners after the 2020 general election to evaluate the election and make recommendations on improvements.The commission will now be tasked with making a recommendation to the commissioners regarding the voting machines.Sheasley said anyone who would like to work the polls in their precinct in the 2021 election should call the bureau of elections.