Board of Elections - Regular Meeting

Mr. Wonder, could you talk for us so we can hear you? Hello. Can everyone hear me? Yes, we can. It's very loud, but thank you. Sorry. You're fine. We'll turn We'll turn it down on our end. Thank you. Okay. Okay. You back on mute. Thank you. Okay. And Okay. So, there's Lee then. I'm

just Hello. Hello. Hello. Thank you for being here. My pleasure. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Sure.

12:30 yet. My colleagues online. Are they on board? I can't I can't tell. Yep. I'm here. Okay, we have a quorum. Should we wait for Tom or should we Do you know if Tom's joining? I did talk to him today and she was he was planning on being here. Yeah. Yeah. He said he may be running late, but he would text me if he wanted us to wait. So, Oh, he said he's not going to make it. Okay. Great.

Okay. I say he won't make it. Uh, seeing a quorum present, we'll call to order the November 24th, 2025 meeting of the Montgomery County Election Board. Uh, Frank, would you like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of America? Right. So, we're going to hear us. I'll make some comments maybe later, but is there any public comments?

No public comments. Okay. And move on to approval of the minutes. Uh, is there a motion to approve the November 3rd, 2025 minutes of the Montgomery County Election Board? So moved by Commissioner Wer. I'll second. Any board comment? All in favor? I I are approved. U moving on to the certification of the elections. Great.

Good afternoon. Uh, Pennsylvania election code requires counties to certify the election results by the third Monday following the election. Prior to certification, we must close our candidates and tabulation results and rest for 5 days wherein recount petitions may be filed. We closed last week on November 18th and completed the first signing on the same day. We are at the end of the 5-day period and no recount petitions have been filed. At this time, I am asking the board to certify the election results for the 2025 municipal election. One second. Thank you. We got Got what? Petition for recount has been filed. Okay. One petition for recount. Yes. Uh can you tell us more about that?

Uh John might need to step up to the next.

Good afternoon. It would appear that there has been one petition um for a canvas um filed. I believe this would be um Lower Morland Ward 2, their commissioner's race. I'm not certain on that, but um from the names I'm seeing on here and from uh information that I had prior to the meeting, um that's what I would assume. um we would be recounting. So the board would be able to vote today to uh certify the election with the exception of the race that concerns the petition for a recanis.

Okay. So that's the only race that's currently in skewed. Correct. Can we confirm the ward that a recount's being sought for? Yes. So there can be certainty sure for the certification vote. Um yeah, hold on. Let me pull it up.

I can't currently open it because we haven't been served and my appearance hasn't been entered. So I'm not a party. So if we take a very brief recess, would you be able to talk to the court and find out that information? We could just have him do it and Frank can tell us some other stuff while Yeah, Frank can continue. Um Frank, can you tell us generally about our turnout and how many candidates were elected? Those kinds of things. Uh certainly we uh received just over 50% turnout. Uh we did it. We did it. I'm sorry. 50.1 50.16%. Perfect.

What was uh what was the total vote? What was the vote total? Uh let me was 310,000. Yeah, I think I have 310,164. Is that right? Correct.

And how many how many candidates were on the ballot? Uh not including pole workers. Uh I think the number was about uh 400 400 400 candidates elected. 400 positions were um over,200 different candidates. Okay. So poll workers is another 800. Uh, no. All the other people from the Oh, the other races. So, out of,200, 400 won. Yes. And that's school board, township, and including judges as well. Yes.

Right. Um, that's helpful because those 400 people will get invited to our orientation on January 10th, correct? And we're going to send him a notification soon. Yes, we are uh in the process of uh cleaning up our database for all their contact information to send all of the winners their winner certificates. We do the school boards first because they have their reorg meetings usually beginning next Monday. Great. Um and then how many poll workers?

Uh the pole workers would be uh elected. I don't know, but uh it's three positions for every precinct. So, uh 1,290 total. Do you have a lot of vacancies? Uh we still do have a fair number of vacancies, but we have a terrific database of people that are willing to step in. Uh we also will reach out to folks who uh ran and were unsuccessful in their contest to see if they would be willing to serve by appointment uh wherever we do have gaps. Uh we completed all of our tiebreers on Friday. Congratulations to you for Oh,

yeah. Winning minority inspector in Sheltonham 41, I believe. Uh congratulations to Commissioner Winder. Uh you also uh won a majority inspector position here in Narstown. Oh, nice. Unfortunately, as employees, neither of you are eligible to serve. I also don't live in Jan, so that all that too. That's fun. We got some fans. That's right. Wow. For the record, those were writins. Those were writins. Thank you. I did not to be on the ballot. Any other interesting characters? Did Batman get elected anywhere?

Uh, no. Batman did not get elected anywhere. Fictional characters uh were not uh tabulated. Uh we only tabulate people that could be real folks. Um Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, we would have tabulated votes for. Okay. Uh we had uh here's an interesting fact. There is not a single John Doe in registered to vote in Montgomery County. Okay. Uh we tabulated votes for it anticipating there to be at least one and there is not. Um serves purpose. Okay. John what else we got? What other facts would you like to share about this last election?

Uh, overall, I'm just very I would like to uh pump up my team. My team performed incredibly well. Uh, processed tons of writings way faster than uh planned. That was all designed by Leanne Seor. Uh, and our postelection processes uh handled uh over at the warehouse by Andy Hatton and the rest of the poll worker team. all just went incredibly smoothly and incredibly well and I couldn't be prouder and happier to have them on my team. Yes. Uh overall, all of our clerks have been working very hard weeks on end and I'm just very grateful for all that and very again proud to be a part of that team.

What uh how did the poll e poll book demo go? Uh pass with flying colors. uh we will be gathering some uh additional information and hopefully be presenting that to the board uh at the first meeting in January uh to decide whether or not to do a full roll out. Isn't that already in our capital budget? Yes, I believe it is. Well, we still need to do the contract. Yes. Right. you done an overview of our pole book printing process?

Yes. Uh in case we need some tendencies for that. Following uh following certification, we uh conduct a debrief after every election and take a look at all of our processes. And in light of recent events, we'll be re-checking all of our process to ensure that we have enough safeguards in place to smoothly run. And who's the printer we use for those? I'm sorry. What's the printer we use for those? Uh, NPC princ. We still use those. Just curious.

So, we're going to need a short recess to finish getting the information from the court. Okay. Um, so I guess we'll wait for the court. Why don't we just call who who petitioned for the recount? Do you know? I do not. I So my understanding is we have a notice from the court. Yeah. But until the court formally adds us as a party, we can't electronically access it. So, we're working with the clerk to find out the specific information so that the board can clearly indicate which race is not being certified. Yeah. And we will get that very promptly. Got it. Republic momentary.

We can recess. Yeah. So, I guess we'll come back here whenever we've got an update. situ. What do we say? How do we recess for a specific amount of time back? Say five minutes. All right. So, do I motion for recess or just call a recess? Um, you can do a motion to recess and reconvene in five minutes. We don't need a motion. All right. So, we don't need a motion. So, we'll just have a recess for a few minutes and then we'll come back and get the information so we can certify. Is there anything else we need to do other than certify? No. All right, we'll be back.

Yeah, we're back. Go ahead. Right, I'm back. Uh, I was able to speak with the Pthanitaries office and they confirmed that the recount petition is for Lower Morland Ward 2. uh commissioner's race. So, um assuming that it was filed correctly and there aren't any sort of flaws that would um have it discounted, I imagine we'll be getting a hearing date sometime within the next few days and uh work with the court to uh conduct a recount pursuant to the requirements of the election code.

Great. Uh no other issues around the county. No other recounts? Not that I'm aware.

Okay, great. Uh, I will make a motion to certify the results of the November 4th, 2025 municipal elections throughout Montgomery County with the exception of the lower Morland W 2 commissioner seat which is undergoing a recount. Is there a second? Tell her we're back. might be muted. She's on.

Okay. She says she's on.

Hi everyone. I'm just uh here on speaker phone. Great. All right. I will restate the motion. Uh I'll make a motion to certify the results of the November 4th, 2025 municipal election in Montgomery County with the exception of lower Morland Ward 2 commissioners race which is being uh which is undergoing a recount. So move by Commissioner Winder. I'll second that. Uh is there any board comment? All in favor? I

I Okay, great. So, the election is certified across Montgomery County with the exception of lower Morland Ward 2 commissioners commissioners. Great. Any closing comments? Okay, I'll just say great job. Historic turnout. Let's figure out when the last time we hit 50% in a local election was. It might be in the 60s or something. It's got to be a record somewhere. I think that New York was in the 20s. Figure that out. Maybe it's 20s or 60s, but I'll see if we can figure out the last time we hit 50%.

Do we have an election archavist? We do not have an archist, but I have a a bunch of staff that I'm sure will be very excited to come to. Thank you. Uh I will make or is there a motion to adjourn the November 24th, 2025 meeting of the Montgomery County Election Board? So move by Commissioner Winder. I'll second the motion. Any board comment? All in favor? I I meeting is adjourned.