West Chester-Liberals are expressing opinions on issues surrounding the results of the recent 2021 general election, calling for an independent analysis of the Chester County election process.

A week ago, the Republicans here demanded a "full forensic audit" of the results, which showed that the Democrats retained their court offices and won at the county and local levels.

Stephen Wahrhaftig, chairman of the Chester County Liberal Party, said: "We did not take this step lightly." "This is not based on any suspicion of deliberate misconduct. Instead, according to the report of our appointed observer. It’s obvious to us that our voting process has not kept up with the changing pace of our county’s voting methods."

He said that Wahrhaftig did not join the Republican Party's call for a forensic audit of the election results, which has never happened in Chester County history, but a less controversial matter. So far, Republicans have not elaborated on what they think a "comprehensive forensic audit" will require, except for a Republican supporter who likened it to an "IRS field officer" checking votes.

By its nature, forensic audits aim to expose fraud or mismanagement that will be used in court or legal proceedings. Former President Donald Trump asked states including Pennsylvania to conduct such audits to prove his baseless allegations that he lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud.

On the contrary, the Liberal Party is seeking to review the voting process, including procedures for receiving, storing, counting and exchanging votes. The chairman said that this is usually done by a consulting company with a process management certificate.

"Our focus is not on recounting, but on a qualified advisory group who understands accounting and process practices that will improve our future election system," Wahrhaftig said.

In September, the Republican-controlled State Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee held a partisan vote to issue a subpoena to obtain detailed state election records, including the names, birth dates, addresses, driver's license numbers, and their social security of voters in the presidential election last year. The last four digits of the number. Democrats, including state attorney general Josh Shapiro, oppose these efforts.

The Chester County Election Commission is scheduled to meet in the historic courthouse on Monday morning to decide whether to certify the election results. Michelle Kichline, the only Republican member of the committee, said she believes a full recount of the results is necessary to ensure that voters have confidence in the results, but did not require forensic procedures.

However, Republican voters are expected to attend the meeting and reiterate their opposition to the vote.

Wahrhaftig said that the county encountered the problem of ballot damage during the election and found that a bag of ballots had not been counted and needed to be updated during the ballot counting process that lasted more than a week. He said that this year the party has poll observers and designated official voting observers in different locations to monitor the vote counting process. He said that based on these observations, the party concluded that the process has been improved out of date.

"There are few democratic elements as important as free elections," Wahrhaftig said. "Believing that the election process can be professionally managed and fair is the core of our governance process. The vote of confidence process ensures that we believe that our political leadership is indeed chosen by the voters involved.

"We saw no evidence of malfeasance during the reporting process," Wahrhaftig added. “However, we do believe that the county has not kept up with the rapidly changing voting methods. At our recent business meeting, several of our members pointed out that every listed company must conduct regular legal audits by independent accounting firms. The purpose of this audit is to assure shareholders that the figures reported to them are accurate.

"In Chester County, voters are shareholders in the true sense. Our taxes fund the election process, and we should know that the reported numbers are credible."

Generally speaking, election audits focus on specific tasks-checking the number of votes to see if the ballots are accurate, or reviewing procedures to see how the election is going, including following current policies and procedures.

They can help identify weaknesses or strengths in the system, with the goal of determining whether things are running well enough and that elections are free and fair—and they count votes accurately to correctly prove the winner.

On the other hand, forensic audits are designed to detect criminal acts—for example, after Kennet’s officials concluded that Lisa Moore, the former mayor, misappropriated taxpayer funds. The conclusion is that she did it, she was arrested for the crime and sentenced to jail.

Wahrhaftig admitted that if approved, Chester County taxpayers will fund election audits. No one publicly estimated what the price might be.

“This will incur costs, but the cost of voters’ trust in the voting process is one of the few government expenditures that we fully support,” Wahrhaftig said. "The audit will not only audit the current elections, but also our vote handling and county procedures. Not doing the right thing now will only lead to a lack of trust in our elections and continue to challenge the procedures that should have become the gold standard of democracy. ."

Wahrhaftig said that due to the review of the voting process, Chester County Liberals will not win any elections. Although it is the largest third party in the county, there are only 2,015 registered liberals in the county.

"Our interest in the audit is to ensure that every Chester County voter can trust the reported numbers," he said. “The county also needs to update their processes to be able to accurately manage the changing voting methods. Communication with voters needs to be improved. Lack of transparency leads to guesses instead of facts.”

The Republican Party identified seven so-called issues in the election that cast doubt on its accuracy. These include:

• There is a problem with the machine used to open the mailed ballot.

• Envelopes with documents cut in half. Ballots were then glued together and sent through the county's high speed, causing them to jam.

• Since the faulty USB flash drive failed to record them, a rescan of the mailed ballot must be completed on the second day of counting.

• The second USB memory stick failed and caused a rescan after four days.

• Another bag of mailed ballots collected from the drop box of the Downingtown Public Library on election night, containing 265 ballots, was not noticed until three days after the end of the election and was counted on Friday.

The Chester County Voter Services Office has a problem in assigning "credit" to voters who return mailed ballots to determine the necessity of provisional ballots. To solve this problem, staff took time to rescan all external envelopes to confirm that proper credit was provided.

There is a discrepancy between the election numbers reported on the county's website and internal servers, and it says this issue caused the count of a match on the website to decrease from one day to another.

There are reports that some mail-in voters received wrong ballots and were told to vote provisionally.

The county defended its actions during the vote counting period that ended on Tuesday, although it admitted that the problems encountered delayed the final result.

"The Voter Services Department did encounter and overcome some problems when handling mailed and absent ballots," county spokesman Becky Bryan said on Friday. "The error that occurred is an administrative error. The integrity of the election has been maintained. This is not an excuse for what has already happened. The county is fully committed to a thorough review of the problems that have occurred in this election and corrective measures are taken to ensure similar errors. Doesn't happen again.

However, she refuted the suggestion that the count was opaque.

"It's important to note that the county works with the two main parties to keep them informed about every step and involve them in all major decisions related to handling mailing and absentee ballots," Brian said in a statement. "Both sides have the opportunity to challenge or oppose this process, but neither side chose to do so for good reasons; they actively participated throughout the process.

In a statement, the chairman of the Chester County Democratic Committee, Charlotte Wayo, also defended the transparency of the election process.

"Fortunately, there is a clear legal framework in the electoral law that has maintained the integrity of the Chester County elections for decades," she said. "The Voter Services Department complies with the law and maintains transparency by including Democratic and Republican lawyers throughout the process. The presence of observers on both sides enhances this transparency."

The full-time writer Michael P. Relahan contributed to this story.

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