In this Nov. 6 photo an observer watches as Luzerne County workers canvas ballots that arrived after closing of voting on Nov. 3 but which had been properly postmarked.
AP file photo
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On Monday morning, the Luzerne County Election Board voted to certify the county’s Nov. 3 general election results by a 3-2 vote.
In these hyper-polarized times, it should not come as a surprise that the vote split along party lines, with the board’s three Democratic members voting in favor of certifying, while the two Republicans on the panel opposed certification.
Perhaps the biggest irony here is that the Republicans were refusing to certify the results of a vote in which the candidate at the top of their ticket, President Donald Trump, was indisputably the winner in Luzerne County. What happened Monday morning wasn’t about Luzerne County, though, not really.
Because, despite his own substantial support, Trump came up short in Pennsylvania and nationwide. Biden won more popular and electoral votes, and he’s headed to the White House.
Trump and his lawyers have since Nov. 3 been engaging in baseless and dishonest tactics to undermine faith in the electoral process which produced that outcome. Those tactics have included a series of lawsuits that lacked any evidence of electoral fraud, and which have been rightly dismissed by exasperated judges, including judges appointed by Trump himself.
With its 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania has been a key focus of Team Trump’s desperate efforts to overturn Biden’s victory. And, as elsewhere, the results have been much the same.
Despite this lack of evidence, despite rejection by the courts, Trump and his supporters have continued to press their case in the court of public opinion, shouting for anyone who will listen about how he was robbed.
For months the president clearly signaled that he would refuse to accept any loss in November as legitimate. He told us he couldn’t lose, wouldn’t lose, and if he did lose, it could only be the result of cheating. Those who eagerly bought into that dishonest and delusional narrative before and since the election continue to argue — like the president, without any evidence — that the election was tainted by fraud.
Tragically, two members of the Luzerne County Board of Elections have followed the lemmings off the cliff.
Republican board member Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt voted against certification, going as far to assert that her colleagues would be guilty of election fraud if they approved certification. She called for recounting of all paper ballots and replacement of the county’s new voting system. This should not come as a surprise, since Dombroski-Gebhardt previously said that’s what she intended to do.
More surprising was the stance of Keith Gould, the other Republican board member.
Gould said the board’s review of ballots was “clean and concise,” accessible to the public, thorough and above-board. Despite that, Gould said he was voting against certification because he had not previously heard from some of the citizen speakers who attended Monday’s Election Board meeting and believes some of the concerns they raised about equipment and processes warrant further investigation.
Fifteen residents spoke for more than an hour during the public comment portion of the virtual meeting raising various complaints and allegations — all urging the board to hold off on certification. They included Republican county Councilmen Stephen J. Urban and Walter Griffith.
County Republican Chairman Justin Behrens also was among them, saying he has “grave concerns” and believes certification without addressing all outstanding questions will set a precedent for future elections.
None of these speakers presented any evidence that would warrant withholding certification.
The board spent approximately 76 hours observing, reviewing and adjudicating the election, which also was covered and observed by local, national and international journalists, teams of lawyers representing campaigns, public interest groups and citizens, Democratic Board Member Peter Ouellette said.
Moreover, county assistant solicitor Michael Butera informed the board that the law says elections must be certified unless there is a court order instructing otherwise or a pending petition seeking a recount or recanvassing.
Those conditions do not apply here.
Dombroski-Gebhardt responded that attorney opinions are not always right and pronounced her refusal to be compelled by anyone to sign the certification.
This level of petulance and delusional thinking would be comical if it weren’t undermining faith in the democratic process.
As part of the oaths they took to sit on the Election Board, Gould and Dombroski-Gebhardt swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Instead, on Monday, they took a reckless and indefensible step that would disenfranchise 156,000 voters.
We believe that Dombroski-Gebhardt and Gould failed the voters. They should resign from the board.
— Times Leader