Washington County’s elections board dismisses challenges to 139 overseas ballots
A petition challenging overseas ballots of 139 voters from Washington County now living in other countries was dismissed Wednesday, but not after many of the people caught up in the political stunt expressed anger and dismay over unfounded questions about their legitimacy.
The county's elections board held an emergency hearing Wednesday afternoon to review the challenges by Charles Faltenovich raising residency questions about the overseas voters, but he did not attend the proceeding and the board quickly dismissed the petition after determining it lacked merit.
Dozens of the 139 people who voted using federal overseas ballots attended the hearing through video conferencing and were clearly perturbed and, in some cases, downright angry about why their votes were being contested.
"He's just a dirty trickster," said one of the voters who appeared on the video conference call.
Faltenovich, who lives near Aliquippa, filed the challenges Friday through a proxy who hand-delivered the petitions, along with $1,390 in cash to the elections office in order to pay the $10 fee per challenge. Faltenovich, who is connected to PA Fair Elections that sprouted from the false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, also made similar challenges to overseas ballots in Allegheny and Beaver counties. In all, state elections officials reported more than 4,300 such overseas ballot challenges in 14 counties across Pennsylvania.
The voters all have ties to Washington County and last voted in person here, but are now living in countries across the world, including Canada, Spain, Germany, South Africa and Denmark, just to name a few. They are permitted to vote for federal offices – not state or local races – through the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, although Faltenovich challenged their ballots through a state election law regarding residency, which did not apply in this case.
County solicitor Gary Sweat led the proceeding and explained to the elections board, which consists of commissioners Nick Sherman, Electra Janis and Larry Maggi, that they were required to hold the hearing in order to review the challenges. Elections Director Melanie Ostrander testified that all 139 overseas ballots were from "qualified electors" as required by federal law.
"The challenger has the burden," Sweat said. "The challenger has not shown up."
The elections board voted unanimously to dismiss the challenges and order the elections office to count the votes, which had been set aside.
Sweat then allowed several voters on the video conference call to speak on the record, in effect giving them a chance to vent about what had happened to them. Many said they were disturbed that someone from a different county who never stepped foot in Washington County could question their ability to vote.
"One does not stop being American just because they live abroad," one woman said.
Another woman said she was "deeply disturbed" by the situation and was concerned that others would submit baseless challenges in the future.
"He's already accomplished what he intended to do, which is to disrupt this (election)," she said.
No overseas ballot challenges were reported in Fayette or Greene counties.
Meanwhile, no major problems were reported at polling places across the region Tuesday, although there were two minor issues involving judges of elections at precincts in Washington and Fayette counties that required intervention.
Washington County sheriff's deputies escorted the judge of elections from Houston Borough's precinct after an apparent confrontation with a poll watcher. Demo Agoris was asked to leave following the situation in which he exchanged words and confronted the poll watcher after a disagreement about her using a laptop computer in the precinct and later where she was sitting. He also said he took exception with where she was sitting in the precinct.
"There was a poll watcher sitting in an area that was designated for poll workers only, not poll watchers," Agoris said during a phone interview Wednesday.
He said he demanded that the state constable on duty remove the poll watcher, which was not done. Instead, Agoris was asked to leave over a heated exchange with the woman, according to county elections officials. Agoris said he plans to have a follow-up conversation with county elections officials to discuss the incident and ask why he was removed.
In Fayette County, elections Director Marybeth Kuznik had to file an emergency petition in court Tuesday afternoon after the judge of elections in Washington Township threatened to open the ballot box when the polls closed in order to manually count the final vote totals.
The court order signed by Fayette County Judge Linda Cordaro barred Vincent Manetta from doing such action and mandated that sheriff's deputies escort a poll worker as that person transported the ballot box to the elections office in the event Manetta tried to open it and count the votes. Election law does not allow poll workers to open the ballot box at the precinct and reveal its contents.
