An investigation is underway into Chester County’s poll book snafu. Here’s what we know so far — and what happens next

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An Election Day error omitted about 70,000 third-party voters from poll books in Chester County and forced 12,600 people to cast provisional ballots.

That prompted county officials to hire an outside law firm to investigate what happened, how it happened — and recommend policies to prevent similar issues in the future.

“At the end of the process, we’ll have some answers,” said David Byerman, chief executive officer of Chester County. “I believe that this is an important first step for us to restore the trust of the voters of Chester County and to ensure that we have smooth sailing for future elections here in Chester County.”

Here’s what we know so far and what happens next:

What do we know so far?

When Chester County polling locations opened their doors Nov. 4, there was some confusion. The poll books only included registered Democrats and Republicans — not third-party voters.

“We have 230 precincts here in Chester County and all of them had incomplete poll books that omitted a number of voters,” Byerman said.

Chester County Voter Services sent an email out at 9:50 a.m. announcing the error. The county advised affected voters to cast provisional ballots while supplemental poll books were rushed to polling locations.

A judge approved an extension for all Chester County polling locations to stay open until 10 p.m.

By the end of the day, 12,600 voters cast provisional ballots, which is nearly twice as many as the county has had in a peak presidential year. The damage, however, was already done.

“We have certainly heard from a number of voters who felt like they were potentially disenfranchised and they lost confidence in our election administration and rightly so,” Byerman said. “I think that we are very sensitive to the notion that we did fall short of our own expectations and people are, understandably, having those concerns.”

The county committed to conducting a formal review into the problems.

“We felt like this was a serious enough error on the county’s part that we really felt like we needed to go out of our way to investigate the circumstances of how these incorrect poll books were produced, what processes and controls are in place to ensure poll book accuracy, whether those processes were sufficient or whether they failed and whether those processes were properly followed,” Byerman said.

Who will lead the investigation?

By Nov. 13, the county processed 11,197 provisional ballots that satisfied the legal review and included them in the election results. On Nov. 17, the county Board of Elections accepted 1,400 of the remaining provisional ballots that were set aside for further review during a meeting.

That same day, Chester County selected West Chester-based law firm Fleck Eckert Klein McGarry from a pool of 10 applicants.

“We went through an expedited process where we interviewed some vetted and recommended firms, recommended by trusted partners of the county, and ended up determining that a law firm out of Chester County was the best choice to lead that investigation,” Byerman said.

According to a county press release, the investigation will center around five questions:

• What was the root cause of the production of incomplete poll books that led to the omission of third-party voters?
• What processes and controls were in place within the Department of Voter Services to ensure poll book accuracy?
• How and why did those processes fail? Were the processes and controls insufficient, or were they not properly followed?
• What other factors contributed to the failure or impeded Voter Services staff from identifying or reporting concerns?
• What caused the significant delays on Election Day as the County worked to mitigate the issue, and why weren’t supplemental poll books delivered to some polling places in a more timely manner?

“Some polling places didn’t receive those supplemental poll books until late in the afternoon,” Byerman said.

When will Chester County receive findings?

Chester County will certify the election results during the first week of December.

In the meantime, the law firm will conduct interviews and review relevant materials. The contract between Chester County and the law firm will not exceed $35,000.

The deliverable date for the investigation report will be no later than Dec. 19. There will also be a public hearing.

“Because we’re here going into the holiday season, we feel like it would not be appropriate for us to do that in the immediate days after Dec. 19 for obvious reasons,” Byerman said. “So we’re going to schedule that public meeting sometime probably in mid-January to provide some public accountability for this process.”

Byerman remained confident that Chester County Voter Services will rebound from the error.

“There are no more conscientious people who work here in Chester County than the people who work in Voter Services,” he said. “They are drawn to a career in public service and working specifically for voter services because they care about the fair and equitable administration of elections. We all feel bad about this mistake. But at the end of the day, we want to get to the bottom of why this happened and more importantly, why it wasn’t caught before Election Day.”