61 Absentee Ballots Rejected in Marple

Absentee ballots from the Nov. 5 General Election in Marple Township's 2nd Ward, 2nd Precinct were challenged recently by the township's tax collector, John Capuzzi Jr.

Capuzzi, who won re-election as tax collector in an uncontested race and is a Republican, said in an email message that he reviewed the absentee ballot envelopes on Election Day and noticed the signature section of the envelopes had numerous sets of different handwriting written on them in different color pens and styles.

"It was clear to me that more than one person had stuffed these ballots," Capuzzi said in an email message, "and the extremely high number of returned ballots from a single address is suspicious."

He then challenged the ballots so they could be reviewed by the Delaware County Bureau of Elections and the validity of the ballots could be determined.

Sixty-seven absentee ballots, which all came from Broomall Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at 50 Malin Road in Broomall, were challenged and reviewed in a hearing at the Delaware County Bureau of Elections on Monday, County Solicitor Mike Maddren said. 

Of those 67 ballots, only six were deemed valid, while 61 were deemed invalid and not counted, Maddren said. 

It was unclear when the last time ballots in Delaware County were rejected.

The 61 rejected ballots, which were votes cast for all races not just local races, would not have changed the outcome of the Election, Maddren said.

"My only reason for challenging these ballots is that I felt strongly that something fishy was going on and that my neighbors deserved the right to cast their own votes and to know of this suspicious activity," Capuzzi said. 

In order to vote as an absentee, meaning the voter is unable to physically vote at the polls, an absentee application must first be completed by the deadline of Oct. 29, Maddren explained, the voter will then receive the absentee ballot, which must be filed by Nov. 1. 

On both the absentee application and absentee ballot, the voter must correctly fill out the forms and state if they need assistance with voting and identify who specifically will assist in the voting, Maddren said. 

Assistance in voting could mean that the voter can check the box but may not be able to sign his or her name on the ballot, he explained. And the same occurs in the polling booth, if a person enters the booth with a voter to assist with the physical voting process.

The 61 invalid ballots were either not filled out correctly by identifying who assisted the voter, the absentee application was not filled out correctly by identifying who assisted the voter, or the two forms did not match, Maddren said. 

Both the absentee application and ballot need to match, he said. The 61 ballots and/or applications did not match or were not filled out correctly and therefore deemed invalid. 

Maddren said this law dates back to a 1965 case in Montgomery County. 

"It's an extra step in fraud prevention," Maddren said. 

He said the Bureau of Elections did send a subpoena to representatives for the nursing home however no one appeared at Monday's hearing. 

Marple resident John Butler, who was the Democrat challenger for Board of Commissioners 2nd Ward seat, said the voters who had their ballots rejected were not notified and not given notice of Monday's hearing.

"I just think it's a disgrace that you would disenfranchise 61 seniors who took the effort to vote, when we're trying to encourage people to vote," Butler said.

Tony Campisi, the Marple Newtown Democratic Party chair, said in an email message that the one Democratic member of the county Board of Elections did vote against rejecting the 61 ballots based on his belief that the decision of the board was not properly based on state election law or valid court precedent and that the voters who were challenged were not properly notified.

"Failure to notify, deprived these voters of due process of the law and the opportunity to refute evidence that their votes were not properly cast," Campisi said. "That's a violation of the most basic of Constitutional rights and cannot be allowed to stand."

Rejecting the votes is a precursor to Republican attempts in coming elections to disenfranchise voters, Campisi said. 

"It's part of a national effort by Republicans to limit voter rights based on unsupported charges of fraud and we will not sit idly by and let it happen here in Marple Township," he said.

Capuzzi said he used his right to challenge the ballots, to protect his neighbors and their votes.

"I decided to stand up and do something about this situation because I will not tolerate our senior citizens being robbed of their right to vote for who they choose," Capuzzi said. "The fact that many of my neighbors in this case are elderly and infirmed adds to my disgust for whoever is behind this."

Lawyers representing both the Democrat and Republican parties attended the hearing along with Bureau of Elections representatives and attorneys, Maddren said.

Board of Elections Solicitor Frank Catania was unavailable to speak with Patch.



This story was first posted at 11 a.m. Thursday and has since been updated.