Dreamstime

A former Armstrong County director of elections is alleging a civil rights violation, age discrimination and interference with her job in a lawsuit against the county and a contractor.

Marybeth Kuznik, of Penn Township, Westmoreland County, filed suit against Armstrong County and an independent contractor hired by the county to perform election-related work. The suit was filed last month in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

Kuznik claims the contractor antagonized and bullied her, and sent emails containing “hostile rantings” about her to county commissioners, the county administrator and other employees.

As the only full-time employee in her department, Kuznik said she single-handedly administered the 2020 election for the county’s 45,000 registered voters.

While closing out the 2020 election, Kuznik noticed security problems with the voting machines and other election materials and equipment. One problem, according to the suit, was her discovery of a notebook containing the passwords for the county’s election management system lying unsecured next to a computer in the contractor’s office in the tabulation room of the voting machine storage area in the county garage.

Kuznik said she reported that and other concerns she had with the contractor to the commissioners and administrator, but no action was taken against him.

She said the contractor made several accusations against her, saying she wasn’t properly doing her job.

At the same time, Kuznik said she repeatedly asked the county administrator to inform the commissioners that the lack of staffing was threatening the security and accuracy of the election because the work involved with running an election was too great for one person to complete.

Following the May 17 primary, a mandated audit of 2% of the vote found 18 votes missing in the Bradys Bend precinct. She said she does not believe the votes from the precinct were scanned a second time to account for the lost votes, according to the suit.

On June 17, 2021, according to the suit, Kuznik was called into a meeting with the commissioners and was confronted with a list of 19 allegations about her work.

She argues that many of the allegations misrepresented or falsely interpreted sections of the state Election Code, and some of the allegations were about matters that arose from the contractor’s work.

An allegation regarding pay stubs issued by the controller’s office were beyond Kuznik’s responsibility, and additional allegations accusing Kuznik of failing to show up for work on the first day of petition signing and failing to show up on time for “key” election days were false, she said in the suit.

She said she missed a June 23, 2021, hearing regarding an election case in which she was supposed to be a witness in common pleas court because a tire on her vehicle went flat while she was driving to the hearing, and the hearing was over by the time she arrived. She said she notified the court administrator that she would be delayed. Afterward, she said she was called into a meeting, confronted again with the previous allegations, accused of skipping the hearing and was terminated.

In the suit, she argues that the county violated Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting her to disparate treatment in her employment on the basis of her sex, unreasonably interfering with her ability to perform her job, and creating an intimidating, humiliating, and hostile work environment.

She claims the county violated the federal Age Discrimination Act of 1975 by treating her less favorably than similarly situated younger co-workers. She said she is over 40 years old, but her specific age isn’t mentioned in the suit.

The suit argues the county also violated the state Whistleblower Act and Human Relations Act.

Kuznik also contends that the contractor inflicted emotional distress and interfered with her contractual employment.

The county commissioners could not be reached for comment.

She is seeking unspecified damages and demanded a jury trial. She is being represented by Max Roesch of the Lindsay Law Firm in Butler.

Since August 2021, Kuznik has been employed as director of elections and voter registration in Fayette County.