Cumberland County is willfully violating PA Statute: Report

Carlisle, Pennsylvania — County Commissioners are willfully violating PA Statute in Cumberland County.

That’s just one hefty allegation fired off by a local election integrity advocate following last month’s Cumberland County Bureau of Elections meeting in a written list of grievances, obtained by Harrisburg100.

John Cobb, a member of the Election Integrity Taskforce of Cumberland County, spoke at the Nov. 19^th BOE meeting to raise key concerns: 

Cobb said about 3/4^th of the counties across the Commonwealth are doing the “2% – by hand.” (Cobb is referring to the statutorily required 2% post-election recount, where a random 2% of ballots cast are re-counted using vote tabulation machines – or by hand; but this year, Cobb said, more and more are doing them – by hand – to allay public mistrust.)

Cobb added: “a similar number of counties allow (authorized) ‘observers’ during the 2% recount.”

As for provisional ballots, Cobb said most counties allow observers for the provisional ballot adjudication process, like election integrity organizations and authorized candidate representatives. Cobb made sure to specify “meaningful” observation (as counties have at times enforced distance rules that really allow no valuable observation.)

“Why is there a much higher level of obfuscation of (election) processes and policies here (in Cumberland County) than there are in most of the Commonwealth?” he said.

Commissioner Kelly Neiderer went outside of protocol and rebuked Cobb’s comments. Neiderer said the Board has done what it’s “required” to do. “I believe this Board has been transparent,” she said. Commissioner Gary Eichelberger, however, asked Mr. Cobb to send a list of his enumerated concerns to his attention. Commissioner Jean Foschi, who is believed to be the commissioner charged with overseeing the county’s elections office, was largely quiet at this meeting; she has otherwise been on the public forefront of promoting trust in the elections process, having appeared in a Sept. 25^th televised PCN Panel on “Election Integrity.”

Harrisburg100 is sharing here Cobb’s written list of grievances. They range from unclear channels of communications for candidate representatives with the county elections officials & ignored emails, to major allegations that the candidates authorized representatives were unlawfully refused access to the most recent provisional ballot adjudication process and the 2% recount (by voting tabulation machine).

One excerpt from Cobb’s written email to Commissioner Eichelberger reads as follows:

County Commissioners willfully violating PA Statute:

a. Last May’s Primary (2024), as a Candidate’s Authorized Representative, I objected to being blocked from the Provisional Ballot Adjudication Meeting, and there was much ado at that time.

b. Shockingly, in November General Election Directory Salzarulo would not permit observation of this function yet again. “There’s nothing to see.”

c. Feedback from (Dave) McCormick campaign is that Cumberland is the ONLY County preventing this legally required observation, and that there is actually a LOT to see.

At the Nov. 19^th meeting, the Cumberland County Board of Elections did unanimously approve 899 provisional ballots (323 provisionals were rejected).  

Salzarulo reported at the meeting that the required 2% audit was “successful” (on Nov. 18^th); she said the election-day ballots recounted came from Precinct Hampden-12  and the mail-in ballots came from: Precinct Middlesex 1 mail-in ballots, for a total of: 2 ,130 ballots.

At the following BOE meeting, on Nov. 25^th, the Board of Elections unanimously voted to certify the election results, as well as to submit them to the Pa. Department of State. 

Cobb added at the Nov. 19^th meeting: “It’s all about transparency. It’s not a concern that there is anything ‘untoward’ happening in this county,” Cobb said. 

Cobb singled out the CC Elections Board as the target of his concern: “It’s the Board that directs her (elections director) – to either communicate with me .. or not,” lamented Cobb, who complimented the BOE Director Bethany Salzarulo as doing what she’s told well. (The Cumberland County Elections Board is made up of all three commissioners: Foschi, Neiderer and Eichelberger.)

Harrisburg100 welcomes Cumberland County officials to respond to this article and Cobb’s list of grievances at this email: hbg100com@gmail.com