EASTERN PA — Several reports of voting irregularities in Eastern Pennsylvania emerged on Tuesday, the day of the presidential election.
In Easton, signs appeared offering a A constable for Easton’s 10th ward removed one such sign staked into the ground after consulting with an elections attorney on site. The Pennsylvania Commercial Action Network, the same group that posted “Replace ObamaCare” billboards around the state, made the signs.
ID Requests
Many Easton voters also reported poll workers asking for their IDs, even though IDs are not required for this election cycle under the law.
Matthew Keeler, press secretary for the PA Department of State, said that's part of the plan. "Voters are not required to show an ID or to have one, but they are going to be asked if they have one by poll workers."
"We view this as a soft rollout for when Pennsylvania's voter ID law is in full effect next year," Keeler said.
Voters in Newtown encountered two large signs that said “Please Have Your Photo ID Ready." A member of the local Democratic Party said she encountered the signs at 7 a.m. at the entrance to the polling line and that some people were leaving because they did not have an ID. No one at the polling place, including the election judge, claimed responsibility for posting the signs.
Voters Turned Away
Some voters in South Bethlehem were forced to cast provisional ballots, in part, because a judge of elections didn’t follow proper procedures, according to some poll observers.
The judge allegedly passed out provisional ballots rather than place a call to the Northampton County Election Bureau to verify the voter’s registration status, according to Bethlehem City Councilman Michael Recchiuti, an attorney who was working as a poll observer for the Democratic Party.
Some voters walked away, Recchiuti said.
The judge in Bethlehem’s Fifth Ward, Dick Jones, said he didn’t do anything wrong.
“We could call 10 times and all we’d get was a busy signal,” said Jones, pointing to a cell phone on the table where he worked in the auditorium of the St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church. “We’re swamped.”
The presence of two polling stations in one building may have created some of the confusion, according to Joe Welsh of the American Civil Liberties Union of the Lehigh Valley.
Another problem: None of the workers at the Fifth Ward polling station spoke Spanish for a district that has many Spanish-speaking voters.
Challenges for Voters and Poll Watchers
In Philadelphia in overwhelmingly Democratic districts. Democrats denied this, but said the poll watchers main goal wasn’t to monitor potential voter fraud, but to suppress the vote and lower turnout. A judge ordered that the poll watchers be reinstated.
In Phoenixville, a Republican poll watcher challenged the eligibility of a voter who had an “inactive” voter registration status because he hadn’t voted in five years. The man left, later returned to the polling place with his ID and was able to cast his ballot.
Viral Touchscreen Video
There also have been technical issues with voting in Pennsylvania. One voter posted this video on Youtube of a touchscreen machine apparently incorrectly registering his vote for President Barack Obama as a vote for Mitt Romney.
Hurricane Sandy is also causing problems at the polls. In Philadelphia County, commissioners struggled to process 28,000 new registrations that came in after the hurricane caused election offices to shut down for two days.
In Montgomery County, Democratic County Commissioners Josh Shapiro, Leslie Richards, and their Republican colleague Bruce Castor said Tuesday afternoon that Election Day in the county is proceeding smoothly.
Voters Asked About Their Party Affiliation
Voters in Nazareth, Northampton County told Patch they were put off by a woman - possibly an RNC poll watcher - who asked them questions inside a polling place at Gracedale Nursing Home.
Voter Mark Cloeren said, "There was an RNC rep in the voting room asking each voter 'Republican or Democrat?' After a bit of a discussion she said she was asking whether you were registered one way or the other. But it came across more like she wanted to know how you were voting."
Another resident said the woman continued to talk with voters if they told her they were Republican. A third voter told Patch he found the situation odd and uncomfortable.
The woman was not at the polls when a Patch editor went there. The judge of elections at the poll told Patch she didn't hear any politicking in the room and didn't know who appointed the woman.
Any party or political organization is entitled to have watchers at any primary or election.
Have you seen or experienced voting irregularities in the state? Leave a comment below to let us know.
Tax and financial information has an audit trail, which makes it easy(ier) to secure. Voting, by law, is secret, which produces significant technical challenges to doing it online. It is an active area of research with no good method proposed that does not wipe out the 'anonymous/secret' element.
Hail to the chief b!t@hes!
Ever try to get an ID when you do not already have one? As people have pointed out, you need an ID for SS, and bank accounts, and credit cards, and driving, etc. Meaning if you do not have an ID already, then you do not have any of those things that require an ID, which in turn are often required to get one in the first place. Obtaining an ID when you are starting from scratch is time consuming and sometimes legally pretty expensive. Within your own framing you point out how important having an ID is for modern life. If all those things have not already been enough for someone to get an ID, if they already are having to forgo all that stuff, that is a pretty good indicator that obtaining one is not easy, otherwise they would have done it years ago.
What bothered me about the signs & the request for ID was that it was a direct slap in the face of the rule of LAW...important in a stable society like the law or not it keeps us from rioting in the streets!!! I say to any judge that says I did nothing wrong to rethink that position as YOU did willingly, wantingly & knowingly with fore-thought (and possible conspiracy included) violate the law!!! That would be how the warrent would read if someone did any other violation of the law!!! These efforts at voter supression as it certainly is not about voter fraud...I believe the percentage of voter fraud in US is .0004% THat amounts to about nothing!!!...FAILED...I for one have lived long enough now to know I am a working person...I put one foot in front of the other...Do I not deserve to have the ability to simply live with my measure of prosperity??? I have found over numerous administrations that I prosper more when the Democrates are in office...Not to say they are perfect because self serviing Harlots are simply that...BUT the idea of serve in this country has become the select few (1% maybe) I am relieved to see that the people WANT & KNOW differently!!! Thank you everyone for voting, reporting & THINKING CLEARLY!!!
And every American has a right to protest. Many of you on here need a lesson or two in American history. You're all pathetic.
Things that make you go Uhm... Came across this web site that is logging the voter fraud reported and investigated by news services. Click each link and read the articles if you have the time. http://obamavoterfraud.blogspot.com/2012/11/barack-obama-voter-fraud-2012.html?m=1 Pray, Pray, Pray