A Montgomery County, Pennsylvania administrator this week responded to the local Republican Party’s allegations of “ballot harvesting,” insisting that video surveillance does not show that it occurred.
As The Pennsylvania Daily Star reported, Montgomery County Republican Committee (MCRC) Chair Liz Preate Havey addressed the county Board of Commissioners last Thursday regarding numerous election-integrity concerns. She mentioned video footage of a woman depositing handfuls of ballots into a drop box in Upper Dublin Township in the run-up to the 2021 general election. Such drop boxes have been in use in Pennsylvania for absentee-ballot delivery since 2020.
State law generally forbids an individual to submit another voter’s ballot unless that other voter has a disability and assigns someone to hand in his or her ballot envelope. Submitting the ballots of others in contravention of the rules is referred to as “ballot harvesting.”
In response to what MCRC has characterized as violations of the law, the party has asked the county Board of Elections to reinstate guards at the drop boxes and implement other reforms to make the process more secure.
The county’s Chief Operating Officer Lee Soltysiak wrote Havey a letter dismissing her party’s allegations and rebuking her for making the video footage available to the press. He declared that the individual seen in the video filled out a “Designated Agent Form” for each ballot she dropped off, indicating that all of the voters requested that the woman assist her because they were disabled.
“It is irresponsible that MCRC, rather than make a reasonable attempt to get the facts, released this video to a third party and on MCRC social media falsely accusing the individual involved with ‘illegal ballot harvesting,’ when in fact the individual correctly followed the rules for returning ballots,” Soltysiak wrote. “Mail-in ballots may be returned to the Board of Elections by a Designated Agent acting on behalf of a voter who, due to a disability, is not able to do so on their own.”
The Pennsylvania Department of State’s website, however, states “the person you designate as your agent is only allowed to serve as a designated agent for ONE voter [capitals in the original], unless the additional voter(s) live in the same household as you (the voter named in this form).”
Thus, the woman in the video could claim to have properly followed the law if all of the voters she assisted were considered to be living the same household. According to Soltysiak’s letter, the voters whose ballots were deposited resided at “a local rehabilitation and long-term care facility.”
So, does that mean they occupied the same household? The county maintains that they did. But the Pennsylvania Department of State maintains that care facilities are not households.
“Pursuant to Board of Elections policy on the use of Designated Agent forms, the individuals that resided at this address are considered to be in the same household,” county spokesperson Kelly Cofrancisco told The Daily Star via email. “The policy that we have adopted in Montgomery County is that a person can serve as a designated agent for multiple voters with a disability if those voters all share the exact same address within the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system.”
The Department of State’s website, however, states, “A ‘household’ for the purpose of designating an agent does not include a long-term care facility. However, a couple sharing a room or apartment within a facility may be considered members of the same household. This means that each resident who is unable to return their own voted ballot due to a disability must designate a different agent.”
MCRC could not be reached for comment.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
