Where do Centre County Commissioner candidates stand on mail voting and more? What they said

Centre County voters will have the opportunity on Nov. 7 to elect a board of commissioners.

The county commissioners are the “chief governing body of Centre County,” according to the county website, and are elected every four years. Currently Democrats Mark Higgins and Amber Concepcion, and Republican Steven Dershem are on the board.

The three incumbents are running for reelection, along with Republican Marie Librizzi. Commissioners appoint personnel, supervise county offices and programs, and contract in a variety of program areas, the website states. They’re also the fiscal managers of the county, develop the budget and levy taxes.

Among other responsibilities, the commissioners also have a hand in elections. Outside of years when they’ll be on the ballot, the commissioners serve on the county’s board of elections.

To learn more about where the commissioner candidates stand on voting issues, such as main-in voting, ballot drop boxes and ballot curing, the Centre Daily Times interviewed each candidate. Librizzi did an in-person interview and Higgins, Concepcion and Dershem answered via email. Their responses are below and were edited for length and clarity.

Q: If elected to the board of commissioners, what, if anything, would you change about the mail-voting process in the county?

Amber Concepcion: Centre County follows best practices according to the County Commissioners’ Association of Pennsylvania in their procedures for mail-voting. I don’t see any changes that need to be made unless the legislature changes the law.

Steve Dershem: The counting process for mail-in ballots is very secure in Centre County. I am very proud of the many people that make up the team that guaranties accuracy and accountability in the process.

Mark Higgins: At this point, I do not plan to change anything. The Centre County mail-voting procedures were used to write the statewide recommended mail-voting procedures proposed by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. The legislature can always change the laws and the County Commissioners would need to respond appropriately.

Marie Librizzi: I believe that mail-in ballots are an excellent thing. Absentee ballots, excellent. But I do not think there should be drop boxes just out in the middle of parking lots. If people think that drop boxes — and again, I will be listening to the people — if they think drop boxes are a significant advantage to making sure people vote, then they should be inside public buildings. They close at night and are locked up so that there’s nobody in the middle of the night going in. It keeps them more secure. And I think people will then feel better about what’s happening with the drop boxes.

Q: Do you support the ballot drop boxes throughout the county? If elected, would you like to keep them, and/or are there any changes you’d like to see made?

Concepcion: Yes, I support drop boxes because they provide a convenient means for voters to return their mail ballots, and are especially useful during the days prior to the election when mailing a ballot could be risky in terms of arriving on time to the Elections department. Drop boxes have 24 hour security cameras and are a secure means of increasing accessibility to the electoral process.

Dershem: I am not comfortable with the network of drop boxes in Centre County. It is not practical or secure to have drop boxes equally distributed throughout all the municipalities in the county. To be fair to all voters, I would prefer just one central depository/drop box at the Willowbank office building. The legislature intended that “mail-in” ballots be just that, mailed in. I am also comfortable with the absentee ballot system that has been in place for many years.

Higgins: Yes. I would like to keep them. If we can adhere to the recent changes in state law, I would like the ballot drop boxes to be open again on Election Day.

Librizzi: I think the whole point is to get people to vote. That’s a big deal with me. You know, everybody says to me, ‘my vote doesn’t count.’ I keep saying to them, ‘It does count. It counts.’ I know there’s conspiracy theories, and I don’t know if they’re right or wrong, but I know that they count. If you want change, you need to vote. It’s a right that very few people have in this world and you need to take it seriously.

So I don’t really know if we need more (drop boxes). I think we need an overhaul of where they are, how they can be secure, and like I said, the biggest thing to me is just put them in a municipal building. Even a post office is a government building and they close. Don’t put it where the public can get it after that building is closed. You have to do it while the government office is open. I mean, it’s a big county. So maybe people from Philipsburg don’t want to go to the courthouse or maybe people from Snow Shoe don’t want to go to the courthouse, and I don’t blame them. And gas is ridiculous. So yes, I think drop boxes are a great idea if we secure them.

Editor’s note: Ballot drop boxes are accessible 24/7 in various locations across the county and monitored around the clock by a video security system. The boxes are accessible until 9 a.m. on Monday before the election.

Q: Most years, the board of commissioners serves as the board of elections. In that capacity, what would you like to see in terms of ballot curing? Should voters be allowed to fix their flawed mail ballots after they turn them in (in cases such as a missing date or signature on the outer envelope)?

Concepcion: It makes sense for voters to be able to cure minor errors on their mail in ballots, such as missing a date on the outer envelope. I do think the county should attempt to contact these voters and provide them the opportunity to come into the office prior to election day to remedy an incidental error.

Dershem: The issue of ballot curing needs to be uniform throughout the Commonweath. The rules governing the correction of voter errors and the omission of information should be clear and concise. The manipulation of ballots by individual election boards would be eliminated. I would encourage our state legislators to seek input from county election offices and Boards of Elections as to the best path forward.

Higgins: I think voters should be able to cure minor errors including missing date or signature on the outer envelope.

If the minor error is something on the outer envelope, I would like to create a procedure to notify voters of the minor mistake and have them cure it, if possible.

Librizzi: I have no problem with the county calling the voter who has an issue with their ballot, but that ballot has to be corrected at the elections office, in front of someone. Don’t hand it back and say, ‘go fix it.’ If they didn’t have a date on it, I think that happens a lot. ... I think that the county elections office can call them individually. They have to come in and that ballot has to be corrected right at that window where that county personnel is standing. And then there’s no question that there’s any kind of problem with how they corrected it.

Q: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently announced that PA would implement automatic voter registration when people get a driver’s license. Do you support that, why or why not?

Amber Concepcion: My understanding is that the change to the motor voter registration process is that an applicant for a driver’s license or state issued ID could choose to opt out rather than be asked to opt in to registering to vote. This is likely to increase registration by making it a little bit easier to register, and that is a positive thing. There has been research on organ donor rates being much higher when individuals are asked to check a box to NOT be an organ donor rather than check a box to be an organ donor. This is the same concept.

Dershem: I believe that the individual should have the sole choice whether to be registered to vote. The individual also needs to choose party affiliation. The registration process is not complicated and the opportunities to register are plentiful, if they so choose. Voter rolls that are overpopulated with inactive voters are also open to increased risk of fraud.

Higgins: Roughly half of the states have some type of automatic voter registration, so I support the concept. It should increase citizen participation which benefits the country.

Librizzi: If they ask you if you’re a citizen (when you apply for a driver’s license), and you can prove you’re a citizen, I don’t have a problem with that. If you’re in the office, and nobody asks you at the DMV, I have a real problem with that. Because you should only be able to vote if you’re a legitimate citizen of the United States of America. Straight out. There’s no gray area there. We have a lot of foreigners that come to this town, county, which is great. I don’t have any problem with that. But a lot of them have driver’s licenses. Are they being asked if they are citizens? I don’t know that. So that’s my only criteria. I am against it unless they can prove they’re a citizen of the United States of America.

Q: Legislation has been in the works for a new PA primary election date. Are you in favor of changing the primary date, and if it is changed, what impact do you think that would have on Centre County?

Concepcion: I am in favor of the concept of changing the primary date to be earlier, at least in Presidential election years, so that Pennsylvanians have more of a voice in who the nominees will be. However, changing the primary election date to an earlier date with this little time to prepare would cause substantial difficulty for Elections Departments. Securing locations for each of the 85 voting precincts in Centre County with only a few months’ notice of an earlier date would be incredibly difficult, as well as hiring elections workers. We would need adequate time to prepare.

Dershem: Moving the presidential primary election date is a serious matter for elections offices. Having all the preparations, workforce and security systems in place is complex process. Rushing that process is to put the security and accuracy of our voting system at risk. It should not be a last-minute decision, done without consult from the county teams that run elections.

Higgins: I understand the reasons why the legislature is considering this change. If county governments, which run elections, were given over a one-year notice, I would support the change. Counties in Pennsylvania contract with thousands of locations, such as schools, religious organizations, private clubs, etc. These locations often book nearly a year in advance. Less than one year’s notice would be very disruptive to county governments and voters, as well, if hundreds of polling places would need to be relocated. If the new PA primary election date is changed on over a year’s notice, it would have little impact. If the new PA primary election date is changed with well under a year’s notice, it would be very disruptive. Many polling locations might change, and counties may have trouble recruiting enough poll workers.

Librizzi: I don’t want the date change for political motives. I think it’s very, very hard for counties to implement a new date. I’d much rather them concentrate on getting people to vote at the date we’re at right now for the primary. That’s the most important thing. We’re barking up the wrong tree here. In my estimation, we’re changing it so that Pennsylvania can have more impetus and more strength to show national polls. But there’s no sense in doing it if you still don’t have anybody going, if we have 18% of the people voting. So to me, there should be a huge push on people voting in the general election, any election.

I know it’ll make Pennsylvania more important, but what’s the point if you don’t have anybody voting? You’re still going to get the same amount of people voting, what’s the point? It’s going to cause horrible, horrible (logistical) problems for the counties, I think.

Q: Same with open primaries — are you in favor of Pennsylvania moving to an open primary system where Independents can vote, why or why not? And if it changes, what impact would it have on Centre County?

Concepcion: This is a state legislature issue, not one in which county commissioners have any particular influence. But again, I would reiterate that significant changes should only occur when there is adequate time for county elections offices to prepare. In the case of open primaries, that would lead to significantly different procedures for poll workers to follow and a need to provide far more ballots for each major party at each precinct.

Dershem: I am not in favor of open primaries. I believe the individual political parties should have the opportunity to nominate candidates of their choosing. Respecting that many voters choose to not be affiliated with any party, the voter registration system allows changes to be made upon request.

Higgins: This is not a Commissioner decision and I am not sure where I stand on open primaries. I would have to do more research and reach out to County Commissioners in states that have open primaries. Open primaries would have an impact on the Centre County Elections office. They would need to print many more ballots, additional staff might be required, plus additional logistics issues.

Librizzi: I think if they put up a candidate that’s independent, I think they should be able to vote in the primary. They have to have the same rules as us. In the primary, I can only vote for Republicans. Democrats can only vote for Democrats. So I don’t see a problem; they put up their own candidate, they should be able to vote for that candidate. And if that candidate gets more votes than any of the other candidates, well, then that candidate goes on the ballot. But they can’t cross, because we can’t cross. There should only be one set of rules. It doesn’t matter who you are, everybody follows the same rules.

The election is Nov. 7. For more information on voting in Centre County, visit centrecountyvotes.gov.