Montgomery County Commissioner Candidates Tackle Voting Issues

Rachel Ravina | The Reporter•

Montgomery County Commissioner Jamila Winder, running as a Democrat in the Montgomery County Commissioners race, speaks during a candidate forum on Oc

Four candidates running for Montgomery County Commissioner have Election Day on their minds as the 2023 general election season is in full swing.

It was a topic of discussion during a recent forum hosted by the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Montgomery County. Voters have the option to cast their ballots by absentee ballot, mail-in ballot or in person at the polls on Nov. 7.

Tom DiBello, Liz Ferry, running as Republicans, and Neil Makhija, and Jamila Winder, running as Democrats, participated in the Oct. 12 session.

Winder, appointed back in February to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, is running to hold onto the seat she assumed following the resignation of former Chairwoman Val Arkoosh, who left earlier this year to serve as human services secretary in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s cabinet. Current Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr., also a Democrat, announced he wouldn’t be seeking re-election, and his term will expire at the end of this year. Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale, a Republican, lost in the May primary.

Now voters will select three commissioners for the county governing board. Moderated by NBC 10 Reporter Lauren Mayk, the Oct. 12 forum featured a discussion on election-related protocols. Some questions were asked to all candidates, while others were addressed to specific ones.

"Pennsylvania will be in the spotlight when it comes to the 2024 elections, and there will likely be scrutiny on how elections are carried out in counties, including Montgomery County,” Mayk said. "Tell me what your approach will be to overseeing elections and if you would seek to make any changes with the way the county administers elections before the 2024 election.”

And the candidates were off, each offering their own perspective to the hot button topic that’s garnered national attention over the last few years.

"So for me, regardless of what side you are on the aisle, I want to ensure that everybody’s right to vote is protected,” Winder said.

Makhija agreed.

"So this is absolutely critical,” Makhija said. "I’m going to come at this from a perspective that voting is a fundamental right. It’s something that’s been hard fought for. Many of the people in this room would not have had the right to vote at some point in our nation’s history and we need to continue to protect that right.”

"When there are attacks on our system from folks who don’t like the results of the elections, we need to defend from those attacks, and one of them is the idea that there is rampant voter fraud, or was in Pennsylvania, in the last election, which is just a falsehood,” he continued.

Makhija, an attorney and nonprofit executive director, also teaches election law at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ferry, an Upper Dublin Township commissioner, acknowledged "they’re not widespread, but we need to clean things up, and we can do that, and Tom and I can do that.”

"We want to ensure that every vote is heard, but it does need to be done fairly and accurately, and at best, I can say that the way the county is being run now is sloppy,” she said.

"But here’s the thing, in Montgomery County, what’s most important is we need to get in there, and work and make sure that processes and procedures are put in place where every voter throughout the county feels confident in the system and that we are confident in the results,” DiBello said.

DiBello, a retired entrepreneur and former Spring-Ford Area School District school board member, asserted "a lot of questions have been raised” surrounding concerns of an alleged situation in Upper Dublin Township where "somebody was stuffing a ballot box.”

"Problem is, is that there are people have lost confidence in the voting system,” he said. "For whatever reason, they have lost it there has been more than enough evidence that has been presented; there’s been videos that have been shown; there’s just there has been issues, I’m not going to deny the fact.”

Candidates differed in their stances on ballot boxes, which have drawn controversy in recent years. Around a dozen have been typically installed across the county for the past few years. Ferry said she’s "not a fan of drop boxes” and instead wants to "find better, more secure places for people to drop off their ballots.”

As an Upper Dublin Township committee person for two decades, Ferry cited instances of issues where she said voters did not receive the right ballot, ballots printed incorrectly and having "too few ballots at polling places.” Ferry also said poll watchers were "kept away from the counting process.”

"I want to make sure that we’re investing in our voter services team, and making sure that it’s properly staffed,” Winder said. "I want to ensure that there is transparency so that when people have questions they feel like they’re getting answers to the questions that they have, and I also think there’s an opportunity to make sure we’re educating the community on the voting process.”

Like many, Makhija stressed the importance of transparency throughout the voting process, which he said included allowing people to "watch every aspect of the administration of the election.”

"We’re also not going to throw out votes if somebody puts their birthday or the wrong date on the envelope, which is what some of the Republicans want to do,” Makhija said. "They think you lose your fundamental right if your handwriting isn’t great, which is not the way that fundamental rights work.”

"What we need to do as county commissioners is we need to ensure that we have the voting system in place that every individual absolutely has the right to vote, and every individual will go to the voting box or do a mail-in ballot, and feel confidence that their vote is being counted at the end of the night,” DiBello said. "However the results come out, I know as a county commissioner I will stand in front of everyone and say I have 100 percent confidence in these results and that’s what we have to work towards.”

Winder took a different approach to giving her answer on the matter, stressing that county commissioners should aid increasing outreach and participation, while leaving politics out of it. The May primary election had a 23.97 percent voter turnout rate in the state’s third most populous county, according to figures from the county’s election summary report.

"Turnout in the primary was abysmal, and a … non partisan responsibility that we have, is to proactively engage the community so that we’re getting more people involved in the democratic process,” she said.

"I’ll make sure that our voter services team has the resources and tools necessary in order to deliver on our election,” Winder said.

When asked to define "cleaning up the voter rolls,” which contain voter information that may contain records of people who have either moved or died, Ferry said it’s "just a part of a sloppy process that’s occurring at the county level and we definitely need to clean it up.”

Ferry said collaboration is needed to achieve progress.

"There’s a lot that can be done, and we can work together, and we can work with both parties to ensure that people feel confident in the results of the election, and we can do that together,” she said.

"I’m all for transparency,” Winder said. I’m all for making operational improvements so that the things, issues that we had in the past don’t repeat themselves, but at the end of the day voting rights is a basic right and my ancestors worked hard, and long, to ensure that I could be sitting at this table, but everyone across Montgomery County has the right to vote.”

Election Day is scheduled for Nov. 7. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those interested in voting have until Oct. 23 to register, and Oct. 31 to request a mail-in ballot. Visit montgomerycountypa.gov for more information.

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