A video obtained by the Montgomery County Republican Committee from Montgomery County through a right-to-know request appears to show a single person placing minimally six to seven ballots into a ballot drop box at the Upper Dublin Library on November 2, 2021.
Voters are only allowed to place their own ballot in the drop boxes. There is a process that allows a voter unable to visit a dropbox to designate a person to submit a ballot for them, but those ballots aren’t permitted to be submitted at a dropbox.
On Friday we contacted Montgomery County to ask if there is an investigation involving this matter. The county’s spokesperson replied, “We are looking at all of the items raised in the document. If anything is found to be credible it will be referred to the District Attorney’s office.”
Earlier in the week during a meeting of the Montgomery County Commissioners, Liz Havey, chair of the Montgomery County Republican Committee, spoke during public comment about the committee’s concerns about elections. According to Havey, the video obtained of the Upper Dublin dropbox shows over 100 people dropping off more than one ballot in just a few hours of video the party reviewed. Havey also claims that the county would not place security at the drop boxes and did not review the video.
Havey submitted a series of steps the committee is asking the county to take to make the elections more transparent and secure in the future. These proposed steps are as follows:
- Hold regular meets with Party representatives regarding election procedures prior to the elections.
- Reinstate the presence of security guards and operate drop boxes during regular hours.
- Require voters dropping their ballot to sign a log at the box.
- Provide both Parties with a chain of custody of the ballots received at each drop box.
- Utilize a video surveilance system at the drop boxes that County staff reviews and allow Party staff to do the same.
- Implement new mail-in ballot canvas procedures that Party representatives a meaningful opportunity to observe the handling and county of ballots at all times.
- Upon recognition of an error in the county or with the canvas, notify both Parties immediately.
- Utilize an election results reporting system that clearly reflects how many ballots have been collected, how many ballots are in the current county on the website and how many other ballots could be added to the count.
The Person in the Video
Since the video is from Upper Dublin, we scoured the local political Facebook and Instagram pages to try to figure out who it is. We believe we have found the correct person and that this person should be easily identifiable to those active in politics in Upper Dublin Township and Montgomery County.
How to Report Election Fraud
Election fraud falls under the jurisdiction of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, the Montgomery County District Attorney, and the Office of Attorney General of Pennsylvania. You can file a complaint here.
Photo: Screengrab from Montgomery County’s video
Correction: A previous version of this article referred to the chair of the Republican committee as Pavey. It has been corrected to say Havey.