Say what you will about Everett Bickford, but no one can deny he's colorful. Years ago his alter ego was Apples The Clown. He also was a nondenominational wedding minister whose "Sapphire" package cost $100. In recent years, he or she often wears a dress and prefers to be called Erika. Occasionally, when the mood strikes him, he wears pants and becomes Everett again. Everett, or if you prefer, Erika, is also an election judge. During the June 2 primary, he was caught darkening some pale circles on the recent paper primary ballots. Bickford contended that he was only darkening those circles already inadequately filled in by voters. But some say he was darkening them for just one of the candidates, incumbent State Rep. Pete Schweyer. Enid Santiago, his opponent, lost the race by 55 votes and wants a new election. And now, the county Republican party wants Lehigh County DA Jim Martin to investigate.
I have known Everett (Erika) a long time. He was one of those who stood up for minority merchants on Hamilton Street in 2007 when LANTA summarily eliminated several stops that essentially ruined their businesses.
Republicans claim their sole motivation is to insure voter integrity, regardless of who the candidates are, or even to what party they belong. I suppose a cynic might wonder if they feel that Santiago would be a weaker opponent against their candidate come November, except that there is none.
No Republican is running in the race.
It is my impression that Election Chief Clerk Tim Benyo runs a tight office in Lehigh County. However, I suppose that the process can never suffer from too much scrutiny.
But be careful what you wish for. I've been hearing ugly rumors about this race. The parties spreading these stories are unwilling to speak on the record, so I am unwilling to repeat them. But they have nothing to do with Everett or Erika. If the rumors are true, this story will continue.
Blogger's Note: This story was a co-written by fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare.
photo: Ev Bickford performing wedding ceremony
Pawlowski has been jailed yet the same stench still rules over the city top down for over 15 years beginning with the virtueless mayor and no white knights on the horizon. The promising rebirth of the city envisioned by the NIZ has been an abject failure being an inside job from its inception controlled by one developer and his sycophant republican congressman. FBI should have cleaned house had it not been for the top down corruption in that agency. The slow death of that city as well as the creeping socialist corruption in neighboring townships is very difficult to watch. Just tune in the evening news from NY, NJ and Phila to get a good feel for the future of the Lehigh Valley, barring a revolution which may offer some promise.
ReplyDeleteLiberalism/Socialism/Marxism/Communism, call it what you please. All the same. “I’m here, I’ll do whatever I want. You OWE me everything . . . now deal with it!
ReplyDeleteWhen you vote, keep America around a little longer, please. We’ve all seen enough of the alternative plan. It’s ugly.
Anon 4:56: there may be a white night ok n the horizon. If you read O’hare’s column last week, he thinks Nat Hyman could straighten this mess out. If he runs and I lived in Allentown, I would vote for him.
ReplyDeleteThis story is troubling on many levels.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I don't think anybody other than the voter is allowed to make any mark on a ballot. Surely Bickford knows this, having been an election judge for many years. So even by his own admission, he has committed what I believe is a felony offense.
While your "impression" might be that Benyo runs a tight ship, the fact that Bickford felt comfortable violating Election Law INSIDE THE LEHIGH COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTER, WHERE BENYO HAS HIS OFFICE, likely speaks more to the truth of how tight of a ship is actually being run.
Had this been the general election, I doubt we would have ever heard about this happening in Allentown. I don't think such fraud is confined the close race in question, and is likely used at multiple, predominantly democrat districts in the city during our general elections to run up the vote totals for democrat candidates. It's just that this time it was used against a democrat candidate of color in the democrat primary.
As an aside, I find it interesting that the local democrat machine (through Bickford and likely others) was actively working for Pete Schweyer. I'm sure Ms. Santiago naively believed that her party was the party of inclusion, and that as a Latina she'd have a fair opportunity to win in a heavy democrat district that was specifically created for Latinos. I can only imagine how the reality of the truth has hit her like a bucket of cold water in the face.
Finally, it should not take a local political party to file this complaint. It should have come from Tim Benyo and the Voter Registration Office immediately after it was discovered. Doing so would have sent a clear message that election fraud will not be tolerated by the county. By doing nothing, Benyo has sent the opposite message.
Since Benyo still has his position, one can only assume that allowing election fraud comes from those above him since neither the County Executive nor the Director of Administration has spoken out against what happened. Interestingly, the Director of Administration is also the chair of the local democrat party. That is entirely inappropriate* for the #2 position in the county. That neither the County Executive nor the Director of Administration seem bothered by this conflict of interest speaks volumes to THEIR fitness for office.
I have no idea as to whether District Attorney Martin will pursue these charges, but he should. People expect their elections to be fair, and when there's a violation it should be pursued vigorously. A jury should decide whether there was wrongdoing done, instead of a decision being made by political insiders in a backroom of county government.
* Not sure, but the Voter Registration may report directly to the Director of Administration. Either way, for the Director of Administration to be the chair of the local party is inappropriate.
anon@9:19, your long comment is built on a false premise; the system of hand filling in ovals for a scanner to read is new, so there certainly has been no history of this in general elections.
ReplyDeleteMM @ 10:07 -
ReplyDeleteI should have been more specific, since you are correct that the opportunity THIS TYPE of fraud has a shorter history. I knew my previous post was already long and didn't want to increase it beyond what I had, so I understand the confusion.
That said, I believe this system was in place for the 2019 general election, so I do think this same issue likely occurred in that election and is not a new phenomena.
I feel that way since in prior elections (under the old system), I have been at polling places and seen election judges/poll workers guide voters to pressing buttons for certain candidates as they've explained ballots. I also have seen them guide democrat voters to pressing the straight-party democrat button since they saw the voters were registered as democrat. This seemed more than a little odd to me.
Similarly, I've also seen Spanish-speaking poll workers pushing the buttons for some Spanish-speaking voters as the poll workers went down the entire ballot with those voters. I also found that odd, since I was under the impression that the ballots were also available in Spanish. But I'll admit to not speaking Spanish so I can't be sure what was actually being said.
My point is that I don't think that what happened in this case was much different from other forms of cheating that have taken place over the years under the old method.
While I don't think (or at least don't hope) that election workers are actually filling out ballots for people who aren't voting, I do believe there are/have been enough subtle ways to shave a few votes here and there in an election.
Those votes can add up, particularly in a close election. To me, that makes rooting out and prosecuting ANY wrongdoing a high priority. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Lehigh County has that same concern.
And while I'm not suggesting that Benyo is actively instructing poll workers to cheat, I don't think he or his office has as much knowledge of what's going on in many of their polling locations (particularly downtown) as they should. Again, that the Bickford issue could happen in the same building where Benyo has his office is stunning.
The urge to cheat on the November election will be strong. Sad to say it, but morals and ethics in American politics are at all time lows. As 11:04 correctly states, even minor cheating in local elections can gave a huge impact. At this level, races can be determined by as few as 25 votes. There is no room to tolerate the misdeeds of even a few operatives.
ReplyDeleteunknown and anon 12:08: First I want to remind readers that as an independent, in both registration and mindset, I do not have a dog in the race. Secondly, the poll workers I know work long hours for short pay, It's a dedication, and they take pride in the fairness.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that said, I believe that Trump Derangement Syndrome is very real, and that the November election could be an acid test of the systems in place.
I can back up what anon 10:07 wrote, as a poll watcher I have seen exactly the same kind of activity myself in Allentown many times .
ReplyDeleteWhat everyonw should understand is that while poll workers all work long hours fr little reward problems may, and do arise when all of the poll workers at any location are partisans of the same party. In one party cities the controlling party makes sure this is exactly what happens and put their own activists into the polls on election day to facilitate whatever voter fraud they are planning that particular year. Anyone who doesn't think this is happening in all of the big Democratically controlled cities is naive at best.
ReplyDeleteScott is correct. Voter fraud should be a serious concern of every clear-thinking American who believes in free and fair elections. If anyone watched the full Judicial Hearing today, it was obvious the Democrats were obsessed in promoting full scale voting by mail. No need to wonder why.
ReplyDeleteThis nation is not prepared to deal with the flood of questionable ballots to be cast. I believe the final results will not be available for weeks after Election Day. It is impossible for us to ‘check the checkers’ who will handle the process of counting. Not only that, but it has been proven several huge voting districts across America are using out-of-date voter roll books for validation.
Today’s C-Span televised Hearing would upset most who viewed it. The opposition party is going all out this time. Nothing is too low for them.