Beth Ann Rosica: Good intentions don’t justify breaking election law

Last week at the Chester County Election Board hearing, Democratic commissioners Josh Maxwell and Marian Moskowitz voted to count over 1,000 challenged provisional ballots. They made comments about the good intentions of the voters and Judges of Elections (JOE) and said they could not disenfranchise voters and penalize them for the mistakes of others — or as it were, the grave error of their own staff members.

Initially, I, too, was concerned about potentially disenfranchising registered voters due to no fault of their own. My first reaction was one of dismay and slight annoyance over the challenging of the provisional ballots — I was one of those voters whose name was left off the pollbook due to the county’s error and was forced to cast a provisional ballot for the first time in my life.

I wasn’t happy about it and my JOE did not give me correct information as to how to complete the provisional ballot — but I read and followed the instructions and believed that it was submitted correctly. However, I was not 100 percent sure and the chaos that ensued the rest of the day when I learned that over 75,000 unaffiliated voters were left off the pollbook did not reassure me that my ballot would be counted.

This was all on my mind as I watched the Republican solicitor challenge over 1,000 ballots. I thought, maybe it’s a bad idea. After all, how can you punish legally registered voters for the mistakes of others?

But then, my thinking changed.

I went back and looked at the instructions for completing the provisional ballot. The document clearly said that under certain circumstances, ballots would not be counted. And yet, the two Democratic commissioners voted to count ballots with those errors anyway.

As much as I did not want to see any voters disenfranchised, I came to realize that the commissioners had a legal responsibility to disqualify those ballots. Only Republican commissioner Eric Roe had the insight to understand that and the courage to vote no.

Sadly, the Democratic commissioners have a history of making decisions based on feelings, not facts or the law. Commissioner Maxwell said he was moved by the tears of one JOE who was distraught about giving wrong information to voters, potentially invalidating their ballots.

Maxwell was more concerned about the feelings of an elected JOE than actually following the law. His job as commissioner, funded by the constituents of Chester County, is to ensure the law is followed. He and Moskowitz failed in that regard last week.

In addition to failing to uphold the law, their concern about disenfranchising voters was actually realized — but not in the way they thought.

The Democratic commissioners believed that by counting illegal ballots they were preventing those voters from disenfranchisement. While that may be true, their actions actually disenfranchised the over 175,000 voters who were in the pollbooks. The counting of illegal ballots diminishes election integrity, resulting in a disenfranchisement of all voters.

Two wrongs don’t make a right, and regardless of how much Maxwell and Moskowitz want to believe that, it will never be true, particularly in this situation.

Perhaps, the most disenfranchised were those third-party and unaffiliated voters who showed up to vote and were either turned away and asked to come back later or who did not have the extra time to complete the provisional ballot process.

The woman in line behind me at the polls was a registered independent and she speculated aloud about how many people in our boat would get frustrated and just leave. While the numbers are not likely high, these voters were definitively disenfranchised.

What this debacle revealed is an ongoing pattern of incompetence in Voter Services. In the primary, it left the position of Prothonotary off the ballot. There were no consequences for this significant error either. Had the Democratic commissioners addressed the rampant problems in Voter Services at that point, maybe this situation would not have occurred.

Ultimately, election integrity comes at a cost and apparently our Democratic commissioners are unwilling to make the tough decisions to uphold it. Perhaps the commissioners should consider stepping down as the Board of Elections and appoint a nonpartisan group of citizens to effectively manage these issues. Delaware County has this structure, and it might ensure better accountability in Chester County.

On election day in Chester County, voters showed up in good faith. The law was clear. The commissioners chose sentiment over statute. Until accountability replaces excuses, election integrity will remain compromised — and every voter, regardless of party, will pay the price.

Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.