The processes that will be used to conduct the hand count of two races from the 2020 election, along with its hefty price tag, were recently presented to the county Board of Elections.

The information contained in the PowerPoint presented to the board by Forrest Lehman, director of Lycoming County Voters Services, was “almost identical” to what will be provided to workers doing the count of the presidential and attorney general races, Lehman said.

County employees are expected to be enlisted to do the count, which commissioner Tony Mussare said should cost about $0.50 per county resident, which amounts to $50,000 to $60,000.

The recount, which will begin Jan. 9 and will be completed by Jan. 31, was requested by a group which had presented the board with almost 5,000 signatures of county residents questioning the integrity of the voting machines and claiming that there were more ballots than there were people who voted in the General Election in 2020.

“Statewide, the number amounts to approximately 121,000 votes. Lycoming County was a small part of that and so we would like that ballots be hand counted — that is the whole purpose of paper ballots — so that we can confirm the accuracy of the machines,” claimed Karen DiSalvo, one of two people from the group at the meeting.

Another issue cited by DiSalvo for the recount request was what she alleged is the fact that the number of county voters identifying as Republican registration numbers have increased while the number of Democratic registrations have decreased correspondingly all the years since the 2016 presidential election, and yet, President Joe Biden still garnered 30% more votes in the county than Hillary Clinton.

An analysis by an election denier and former military analyst, Seth Keshel, showed this trend in voting in the county, DiSalvo claimed.

“The recount will not show thousands of uncounted or incorrect votes, as has been claimed from the start when the attacks began on the county’s elections and its voting system. It was not the media doing that, it was people coming into this room and quoting Seth Keshel. That’s where those allegations came from,” Lehman stated.

One county resident at the meeting, Frank Steckel, took issue with the fact that the wishes of a small portion of residents in the county were being considered. Steckel asked if a referendum could be placed on the ballot in the next election so that all voters could decide if they wanted the recount.

“It’s a concept of a small minority, dictating and maneuvering and manipulating the leaders of our county into doing something they want,” Steckel said. “I’m sure there’s some place better for $50,000 to be spent.”

Referring to questions about the integrity of elections that have grown since the 2020 presidential election, Steckel said, “This is a national thing that’s going on. Everything was fine for how many years? Now? This whole thing was propagated, in large part, by somebody who’s facing multiple federal and state charges, an ex-president who should be in jail probably for treason.”

Earlier this year, the Board of Elections had voted to place a referendum on the ballot asking voters if they wanted to do away with the use of voting machines. The board was told that the state legislators would have to give the okay for such an action, so the board did not pursue it for fear of being sued by the state.

In response to Steckel’s idea of placing the issue of a hand recount on the ballot as a referendum, Lehman said that, although he is not a lawyer, the same rules would probably apply.

“I believe it’s doubtful that a question of that nature is permitted by any authorizing statute and state law,” Lehman said.

When the board’s solicitor, J. Mike Wiley, was questioned about the issue of a referendum on the ballot, he referred back to what Lehman had stated, but added that if the board wanted him to look into the matter, he would.

“So, it’s back in the commissioners’ court again…I think the commissioners should act in that respect. It seems like this whole subject is pretty agitated,” Steckel said.

“It’s the idea of a small minority coming in and dictating to the democratically elected leaders how money will be spent. This whole movement is coming from one side, and two-thirds of the commissioners represent that political side, I believe. I would think in a way to avoid looking political, go through whatever it takes to put it up for a public referendum,” Steckel argued

“I don’t look at that as a Democratic issue or Republican issue or as an Independent issue or as a Green Party issue,” said commissioner Scott Metzger.

“This is a way to show that the tabulators match the ballots and we put this to bed once and for all. To show at least in Lycoming County, that we do it right,” Metzger said, referring to the hand count.