Poll Watcher Passion In Delco — Gregory Stenstrom and Leah Hoopes, whistleblowers and authors of The Parallel Election, held a poll watchers training session, last night, Oct. 20 at the Haverford Recreation CREC building attended by almost 50.
Greg, of Glen Mills, and Leah, of Bethel Township were certified poll watchers and observers at the Delaware County (Pa) Wharf Counting Center in 2020. Their book is an expose of what they saw. It can be purchased on Amazon or, best, at www.parallelelection.com.
Passion was high as the event lasted more than three hours. Nobody left and several stayed for questions after it ended. No fee was charged. It was pure patriotism by the presenters and the attendees, most of whom appeared to have come from Delco, albeit one woman was from Bucks County.
Emphasis was placed on the legal powers and rights of poll watchers — yes, Christine Reuther, poll watchers have them, see below — and detail was given as how to exercise these powers and rights.
Poll watchers may take photos of return sheets after voting has ended and demand a copy of the machine tape. It was stressed that they do so.
The presenters said poll watchers can expect bullying by party officials but this can be countered by knowledge of the law. It was recommended they have copies of the appropriate laws and rulings with them.
Poll watchers are representatives of candidates or parties. The attendees were told they must make the candidates understand they have to act early and quickly to address concerns.
One big concern is that Delco sent out 42,000 vote-by-mail ballots on Oct. 7 and 8, but the logic and accuracy testing of the scanning machines was not done until Oct. 11. Greg says this was not an innocent mistake. The county’s goal is to have the ballots fail while being scanned allowing them to be curated and replaced with votes for the chosen.
Candidates who feel they don’t fall in that category should start filing injunctions now.
Special thanks to Joy Schwartz for the work she did in promoting and organizing things.
