Jaime Oliver: Mistakes or incompetence in Chester County?

The mistakes or incompetence of the Chester County Department of Voter Services and the solicitor’s office are on full display. On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, the county notified officials from both major parties that the county made a mistake in not putting the office of prothonotary on the Municipal Primary Ballot for the May 20, 2025 election. 

The elected prothonotary, Debbie Bookman, was forced to resign in October 2024 due to “financial irregularities” that were discovered and investigated. Now, the nominations to replace her will run through party committees, not primary elections.

Chester County Board of Commissioners Chair Josh Maxwell only publicly admitted that the county “made a mistake” after the Republican solicitor asked for a comment at the Board of Elections meeting on Friday, April 25. Both comments can be found starting at the 52:45 mark of the meeting video.

Although Maxwell did not publicly assign blame, an experienced former county employee told me that the Voter Services Department should have known the law on this matter and should have included the prothonotary position when planning the election in January. However, it’s the role of the solicitor’s office to know the federal, state, and county laws, including election law. Both departments fell down on the job and, in the process, disenfranchised voters for this upcoming primary election.

Year after year, both departments continue to receive more of our tax dollars for their budgets. Budgets increase; salaries increase; department sizes increase. What doesn’t increase? Competence or public confidence.

Things changed in both the Voter Services Department and the solicitor’s office around the same time. In 2020 and 2021, both departments got new leadership. 

In 2020, the decades-long tenure of Solicitor Tom Whiteman came to an end. His replacement was Nicole Forzato. Forzato’s time in office was short-lived as she was appointed as a Judge on the Court of Common Pleas in 2022. In 2023, the county commissioners appointed Colleen Frens as the new (and current) solicitor for Chester County. Since Whiteman’s retirement, budgets have skyrocketed and legal positions have been questionable. And now…the mistake!

In 2021, the county commissioners hired a new director of Voter Services, Karen Barsoum. She began to immediately implement changes to policies and procedures, expanding the department (and its budget), while at the same time eliminating anyone with institutional election knowledge. There has been almost a 100 percent turnover rate in personnel within the department since 2021. 

The County Commissioners laud the impeccable elections run by this department, yet voters still have questions about the department practices. And why shouldn’t they? Barsoum continually changes standard operating procedures and documents from one election to the next. Why? Could she be hiding incompetence, or is it just a lack of integrity in the process? Either way, voters will not be able to elect a candidate to fill the prothonotary position until the November 2025 election, more than a year after the vacancy.

When voters lose their ability to choose an elected official due to “a mistake” or ineptitude, the only reasonable justice is for those at fault to be held accountable. The previous prothonotary “made a mistake” and was forced to resign. The county solicitor and the director of Voter Services didn’t just use a wrong credit card, as Bookman says she did. Their “mistake” stole everyone’s vote, which is sacrosanct. Bookman made a mistake. Frens and Barsoum made a mistake. Will the same fate as the prothonotary befall the county solicitor and director of Voter Services? Fairness would dictate that it does!

Jaime Oliver is involved in suburban Philadelphia grassroots politics.