Williamsport, Pa. — In a follow-up to the requests made by Audit the Vote, Lycoming County Elections Director Forrest Lehman says that he still sees no evidence to require a recount of the 2020 election.
Lehman gave his perspective of the data provided by Audit the Vote during the July 7 Lycoming Board of Elections meeting.
Lycoming County election staff and Lehman went through all 49 signed documents collected by Audit the Vote surveyors, who knocked on doors to ask about votes being cast in Lycoming County.
The surveyors reportedly found “anomalies” with the 2020 election, according to Audit the Vote lawyer Karen DiSalvo and Woodward Township Supervisor Jeff Stroehman.
Lehman said that he and his office found no such anomalies that would require submission to the DA’s office, nor for the removal of electronic voting machines.
Audit the Vote previously claimed that two addresses registered by voters in 2020 did not exist.
This led the elections office to find two discrepancies relating to how the Post Office and the elections office handle addresses, according to Lehman. The election office did update the address in the case of one of these locations.
Lehman also said that there was one data entry error by the applicant causing a duplication of records in the voter registration system. This was also brought to the attention of the election office through the Audit the Vote documents.
The most common causes of duplicate records are people who were recently married and registered under both their married and maiden name, or data entry errors by the applicant, according to Lehman.
Lehman said that most of the documents claimed that the surveyed population either did not vote or voted by a different method than in 2020.
Lehman said the survey may have provided “unreliable recollections," but those “unreliable recollections do not constitute fraud.”
“We have all of our records,” Lehman said. “We have the poll books, the numbered lists of voters, the voter registration applications, the mail ballot applications, official mail ballot return envelopes. All signed by the voters to prove exactly who voted and who did not.”
Spreadsheet from the Lycoming County Elections offices listing the individual claims brought by Audit the Vote.
During the meeting, Lehman provided examples of signed voter documents from those surveyed, and after the meeting provided notes on all of the claims made in the documents provided by Audit the Vote.
This evidence did not stop those in attendance from Audit the Vote from “crying foul.”
Stroehman said that he’s “crying foul” on the evidence provided by Lehman. He said that a return to paper ballots and voter ID requirements were necessary to regain confidence amongst the voters.
DiSalvo once again asked the county commissioners to take action on the 10 requests made by Audit the Vote and pursue an audit of the 2020 election.
“Please stand up for the people—we just want transparency,” DiSalvo said. “We just want to know that our votes counted in the 2020 election.”
Commissioner Scott Metzger said that there will be another board of elections meeting to decide on the 10 demands from Audit the Vote. He said they’d try to get that done by the end of July.
