Nine Electioneering Complaints Reportedly Filed Against Borough Office Holders

Monroe County Voter Services confirms that nine separate individual electioneering complaints, all stemming from the May 2019 primary election in Mount Pocono Borough, have been referred to the County District Attorney's office for investigation. While the DA's office has confirmed that an electioneering investigation has been opened, it has not responded to a request for information or comment. The Boro* has confirmed that at least four of the complaints result from a doctored sample ballot promoting some Democrat candidates. However, because the DA's office has declined to confirm who or what the investigation entails, The Boro* is withholding the identity of the three current Borough office holders and primary candidates who were the subject of the citizen complaints we have seen.

The altered ballot, which highlighted the names of certain Democrat candidates and contained an extended endorsement with write-in instructions for council write-in candidate Aida Montanez (who had arrived too late at Voter Services to file her petition and therefore missed getting on the ballot), was placed on the official Voter Information bulletin board outside the entrance to the voting booths. If true, this involved multiple violations -- including doctoring official documents, removing official voter information, and electioneering at the polling place within the prohibited areas, among others.

The official sample ballot is on the left, the falsified ballot is on the right. Voter Services has confirmed that the doctored ballot was removed from the official information board at the end of the evening and returned to Voter Services with the other official documents. The photo on the right was taken by one of the complainants and provided to Voter Services.

Besides having switched out the official ballot with the adulterated ballot on the official board, the complaints apparently assert that the ballot was placed within the ten foot electioneering limit, and also claim that three candidates were involved in the switch and in representing the partisan poster as "the sample ballot". The complaints we saw came from Democrats and Republicans.

The Election Code prohibits electioneering at the polling place. In addition, campaign workers, signs and all other electioneering material must be located at least 10 feet away from the entrance to the room where voting occurs. The posting of partisan documents within that area is also a violation, as is tampering with official documents. The removal of the official sample ballot would be an additional violation, should that be found to have occurred.

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