I recently attended a Delaware County Council meeting in which the Director of Elections, Mr. James Allen, presented a plan to consolidate precincts within the County. 

Mr. Allen made a big deal of the fact that by doing so, the County would save $100,000 per year. I had tried to pose a question after the presentation, but was rebuffed by Council as the session was not open to questioning from the audience. My question had to do with the savings Mr. Allen suggested the County would enjoy by consolidating 100 precincts down to 50.

When he mentioned a potential savings of $100,000, my question was “Compared to what”? In order to understand the consequence of a $100,000 savings, he needed to put it into context. $100,000 sounds like a lot of money, but then I did a little homework.

I discovered three line items in the budget specific to the cost of elections totaling $4.3 million. $100,000 is two percent of $4.3 million. Is the County really proposing we delete 100 polling places to save two percent? Is this really the reason for the proposal?

Another reason given by Mr. Allen was that “it’s too hard to find poll workers”. It’s always been hard to find poll workers! That’s the job! You go out and find poll workers! You have an entire year to do so!

Finally, a Councilwoman suggested that “neighboring counties have fewer precincts, so we should too”. Had the Councilwoman polled the voters in neighboring counties to determine their level of satisfaction with voter services? I doubt it. It’s a juvenile argument, not one I would have expected from this obviously intelligent and capable attorney.

Pennsylvania Statute 25 P.S. § 2702 clearly states that voting precincts shall be no larger than 1200 registered voters. Sixty-three percent of the proposed new precincts would violate this rule. 

The statute allows that changes be made “for good cause shown.” 

Is saving two percent “good cause”?

Is difficulty in finding poll workers “good cause”?

Is the argument “Our neighbors do it, so we should too” a “good cause”?

Consolidating precincts in accordance with this plan would result in the following election law violations:

Thirty of the new, combined precincts would be larger than 1200 voters.

Fifteen would be larger than 1400 voters.

Ten precincts would be larger than 1600 voters.

And one precinct would be larger than 1800 voters.

This “plan” has nothing to do with saving money. It has a lot to do, however, with pushing the County further into “mail in balloting”, where one party oversees the election and their appointed representative does all the counting at the “Central Counting Center” where there is zero bipartisan oversight.

Delaware County Council should reject this plan, and the State of Pennsylvania should rescind Act 77.

Paul Rumley is a Delco citizen who never engaged politically until he saw what happened in the 2020 election. He’s since become a Precinct Committeeman and works with the Delco Election Deepdivers on election integrity issues.