MERCER COUNTY Panel probes election woes

The meeting was open to the public, but only one person attended.
MERCER, Pa. -- A committee to investigate what went wrong in the Nov. 2 general election in Mercer County got together for the first time Monday.
Election Day machine malfunctions in 13 precincts with no back-up paper ballots available resulted in the possible loss of hundreds of votes. As a result, Mercer County commissioners, who make up the county election board, have named a committee to investigate.
Five of the committee's eight members attended the meeting Monday and agreed to try to assemble weekly to meet a Feb. 1 deadline set by commissioners for a final report.
They set their next meeting for 3:30 p.m. Monday in the commissioners' meeting room in the basement of the courthouse. At that time, they hope to elect officers, interview election director Jim Bennington about election rules and procedures and decide whether future meetings will be open to the public.
Who?
Members attending included:
Michael Coulter, assistant professor of political science at Grove City College; Hailstock Rastapari from the Mercer County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Peggy Ruggles of the Mercer County League of Women Votersp; Kathleen Paul, director of continuing education, Penn State Shenango; Robert Lark, Mercer County Democratic Party chairman;Mercer County Commissioners Michele Brooks and Brian Beader also attended the meeting, as did county fiscal director John Logan and county Controller Thomas Amundsen; Commissioner Olivia Lazor was out of town.
Members unable to attend were County Republican Chairman Donald Wilson, Shenango Valley Urban League executive director James Long and Shenango Valley Economy League representative Lance Masters.
Although the meeting was open to the public, only one member of the general public, the husband of a committee member, attended.
Ruggles was elected temporary chairwoman until the next meeting, when members hope the full committee could elect permanent officers.
Members agreed that they need to first determine how the election is supposed to work before figuring out how it went wrong. They plan to ask Bennington to explain rules and procedures and will obtain copies of policies and procedures for each committee member.
They also want job descriptions for Bennington and for judges of elections. They expressed a willingness to hold a public hearing where election workers and affected voters could talk about what they experienced.
Ruggles said she views the committee's most important task as finding the cause of the machine malfunctions and making sure "it never happens again."
Members also voiced differing opinions on whether the meetings should be open to the public. Coulter expressed concern that workers might be reluctant to openly criticize others' shortcomings. Members agreed that even if meetings are open, some provision should be made for private interviews in certain situations.