Following the filing of litigation from a Democratic member of Congress, the county board responsible for certifying election results in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, has finally completed the certification of this year’s figures, days after the November 28 deadline for doing so.
The board is actually majority-Democratic, but the original vote saw two Democrats in favor, one Dem abstaining, and the two Republicans opposed — so the obstruction originated with Republicans and a Democrat. The lone Democrat’s involvement doesn’t somehow absolve the two Republicans of also holding responsibility. When the board voted again, they still opposed certifying the results, although it was then approved.
One of the local problems was evidently with a paper shortage on Election Day, and there was a public comment period held alongside the second — and that time successful — vote on certifying the results where local residents expressed outrage. The Democratic member who originally abstained before later supporting certification expressed resignation to the outcome during the more recent proceedings. “You can’t just snap your fingers and say, ‘Well, if I couldn’t do it, so, therefore, we have to do it all over.’ No, there isn’t a do-over. It costs money, too much money, so that is one of the justifications why I’ve changed my mind. I find no reason why it should not be certified as having done,” Daniel Schramm — that Democrat — said, per media reports.
Schramm also acknowledged the legal necessity of certifying the election results under dispute. Like elsewhere in the country and at the federal level, the certification tasked to this elections board is a “ministerial act—one which the board is required to perform and has no discretion to refuse,” as that Congressman’s case asserted. In Cochise County, Arizona, county board members also initially refused to certify this year’s results despite a legally mandated deadline for doing so, and it took a judge who observed their responsibilities were non-discretionary intervening before they completed the process. There were apparently stated concerns about the certification for use of machines utilized in the elections, questions answered by outside officials who also kept county board members informed prior to the deadline of their legal responsibilities. Even after the judge intervened, one of the Republicans on the three-member board abstained from the vote, leaving the final total 2-0.
An official on Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’s team pushed the possibility to law enforcement authorities of charges for the recalcitrant officials. The legally mandated nature of completing the certification process doesn’t mean there aren’t other avenues for contesting the results of elections, but the law’s the law. Multiple lawsuits trying to undo the results in Arizona before the state-level certification of the results was even finalized have already been dismissed.
Featured image: Gage Skidmore/ Creative Commons
