OCEAN PINES – Recommendations that address voting discrepancies will advance to the association’s board of directors following a meeting of the Ocean Pines Elections Committee.
As members of the elections committee continue to investigate voting discrepancies from the 2022 Ocean Pines Board of Directors election, a recommendation was made last Thursday to suspend online voting, send ballot envelopes to every property address, and ensure the association’s governing documents allow for the election contractor to conduct ballot counting under the direct supervision of committee members.
“That is the path forward at this time,” said Tom Piatti, committee chiar.
Last month, the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors directed the new members of the elections committee to investigate voting discrepancies pertaining to the 2022 board election. And in its first public meeting last Thursday, the committee agreed to bring forward several recommendations that would be implemented in future elections.
“I think we have enough information,” Piatti said. “We have hard copy files we’ve looked at, and we’ve looked at the software and equipment. And I think we have enough information right now to make a recommendation to the board.”
Results from the 2022 board election were first called into question in September, when a hand count of votes revealed significant discrepancies in vote totals. Five of the six candidates had between 100 and 300 less votes than originally reported. The difference between the third- and fourth- place candidates had also narrowed from 152 votes to 15 votes, and the total number of votes had decreased from 9,053 to 8,113.
“This hand count also verified that the tabulation program needs to be investigated to identify the reason for the reporting an excess of votes, above the maximum number of paper ballots, that were scanned on 8/11/22,” a report from the former committee chair, Carol Ludwig, reads. “The failure to verify the information generated by the tabulation program resulted in an inaccurate report of results by Elections Committee Chair.”
Following the resignation of elections committee members, the board last month voted to appoint five new volunteers, who have since been tasked with investigating discrepancies in the voting process.
“I really appreciate this committee coming together,” Director Rick Farr, board liaison, told committee members last week. “You’ve got a lot of work to do for the association, and we have every bit of faith in this election committee to do what is right and fair and just to ensure we have an election for our community that is done in full transparency.”
Piatti kicked off last Thursday’s meeting with an update on committee tasks. Officials noted that a recent investigation of the association’s ballot software system revealed significant deficiencies.
“What we found out was that the scanner that was used was excellent …,” said committee member George Alston. “The software leaves a lot to be desired.”
Alston noted that when the scanner was used in the counting process, it was programmed to scan both sides of the ballot, though the back side was left blank. When that scan was uploaded, the software system would sometimes count ballot marks that had bled through the paper.
“That was one of the problems,” he said. “Some people were using a Sharpie to fill in a box, and it was bleeding through and coming through the other side. They were running a two-sided scan, and it was counting it twice and it was counting it in the wrong place too.”
The committee’s investigation also revealed there was no way to validate online votes in the event a recount is needed. Alston added that the association should consider suspending online voting and hiring a vendor to count election ballots, with the elections committee present to supervise the process.
“You’ve got to have a paper trail,” Alston said. “I think the vendor we’ve had up until this point, that has done our mailings and everything, has done a super job over the years. We ought to see if he is able to do the actual count itself, or if there are other companies we can contract with that will do the whole thing as a third party.”
That process, however, would require a bylaws revision, Alston said.
“The only problem is the bylaws would have to be changed so that the actual counting would have to be done onsite,” he said. “But I don’t know if we can get any of those companies to actually come in and do it.”
Committee member Elaine Brady also noted the committee’s investigation confirmed there was no way to determine if all lots had been counted in the 2022 election.
“It’s a wasted effort at this point, and we need to move on to assure the community this will never happen again,” she said.
After further discussion, the committee recommended suspending online voting until the vendor could provide results in the form of a paper ballot. The committee also recommended sending ballot packets to each individual property address.
“If you own six properties, you are going to get six envelopes,” Piatti said.
Lastly, the committee recommended ensuring the association’s governing documents allow the contractor to conduct ballot counting under the direct supervision of the elections committee.
