The Lehigh County Board of Elections had planned to hold a formal hearing July 6 to review allegations brought by Enid Santiago, candidate for the Pennsylvania Legislative District 22.

Santiago alleges voter intimidation, suppression and election fraud were committed during the June 2 Primary Election.

The hearing, however, was postponed on July 5 after Santiago and her lawyer, Steve Masters, filed an amended complaint July 3 alleging Assistant County Solicitor John Ashcraft appeared to have withheld evidence of “election crimes” from the election board before the election results were certified.

According to a notice on the County of Lehigh Facebook page, the board must now seek new, independent legal counsel as the allegations “prevent the Lehigh County Department of Law from providing legal advice to the election board,” including Ashcraft, who planned to take part in the postponed meeting.

A new date for the hearing had not been set as of July 7.

Outside the Lehigh County Government Center, joined by approximately two dozen supporters, Santiago had a news conference and rally in place of the hearing, which she said was intended “to prove the fraud that has already been admitted in the county, the fraud our voters were oppressed.”

Santiago said she had received an email the previous day noting that due to her complaint, “this hearing was canceled because none of the solicitors of this entire county could take on the case any longer.”

Santiago emphasized that although Ashcraft had been notified on June 2 of alleged witnessed election fraud by Chief Clerk Tim Benyo, the election results were still certified and, in the meantime, her campaign missed opportunities and deadlines to contest the election and demand a recount.

According to the certified results, Santiago came up 55 votes - 1.26 percentage points -short of unseating incumbent state Rep. Peter Schweyer.

“Enid Santiago did not lose this election. This election had fraud.

“This election had voter suppression. This election had voter oppression.

“This election was stolen from the people of the 22nd District,” she said. “We’re not going away, that’s why we’re here.

“We’re here to let you know this is about the voters.”

Speaking with The Press, Santiago said she saw election tampering occur firsthand at the Government Center polling location during Election Day.

“I witnessed it. I was right here in this polling location dropping off treats … When I walked in here that is when I witnessed myself, along with Mr. Tim Benyo, the judge of election filling in a blank, live ballot,” Santiago said.

Santiago and Victor Martinez, CEO of La Mega radio station and president of Alianza PAC, noted Benyo publicly acknowledged during a June 25 public hearing he had witnessed an election judge - Everett “Erika” Bickford - marking ballots in violation of election policy.

“That is when we discovered Mr. Tim Benyo had notified the county solicitor on the day of the election of the fraud, and everyone failed to act at that point,” Santiago told The Press.

The two said Benyo had notified Ashcraft of the witnessed violations at the time, yet Bickford was allowed to continue working at the polling location.

“That solicitor advised him, we believe, not to do anything about it,” Martinez told the crowd, “And then that solicitor didn’t care enough to call the board members and notify them of what was happening.”

Martinez added Bickford also distributed pens and supplies marked with Schweyer’s logo to voters “which is a violation of the rules.”

Furthermore, Santiago’s amended complaint - which was posted to her campaign Facebook page - alleges numerous instances of “voting crimes” committed at other polling locations across the 22nd Legislative District.

The allegations include late poll openings, workers illegally spoiling ballots by separating them from their sealed signature envelopes, the “turning away of multiple voters of color who were legally registered to vote” by poll workers unable to search for the voters’ hyphenated names in the poll book, and distribution of ballots which omitted Santiago’s name.

Martinez said voters had reached out to Santiago’s campaign about the incorrect ballots, “and they were told to just go ahead and write Enid’s name on the back of the ballot.”

“Well, we know what happened to those ballots, they’re no good … so how many votes were lost because of that?”

He also said the lack of a firm date for the rescheduled hearing, the election board appeared to be stalling. Santiago also called the county’s actions a “delay tactic.”

“They’re wasting time. They’re eating up time so September will come along, and then she will once again miss her chance to have her name now on the ballot,” Martinez said, adding election officials needed to be held accountable.

Based on the “criminal and civil violations of the Pennsylvania Election Code” outlined in her amended complaint, Santiago asked Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to look into the allegations for possible prosecution.

“Shapiro absolutely needs to be on board. We can no longer trust the county to have a fair process going on,” Santiago said, adding this was the first time she or her attorney heard of every county solicitor being unable to investigate a case.

During the event, other speakers joined Santiago to speak about the need for fair elections.

Michael McCreary, running as a Republican write-in challenger to state Rep. Michael Schlossberg, D-132nd, said he had come to the Government Center “to witness a hearing; I came today to make sure our election process is fair.

“This isn’t a party issue, this is a fairness issue to our voters … at the end of the day, as a citizen and as a candidate, all we want is a fair fight,” he said, adding he had been watching Santiago’s case and said the process has been “disturbing … We don’t want to see any time where a voter doesn’t have a voice.

“At the end of the day - whether it’s Enid, whether it’s Pete - I support the cause of a fair election, and I support a fair process for all our voters in our community here, we all deserve that.”

Santiago said her campaign has not received contact from her opponent regarding the alleged fraud.

“[Schweyer] has not contacted us. We have not been reached out to by anybody, whether its Congress, whether it’s other state reps, anybody,” she said.

“The only person who has actively went out of his way to reach out to the campaign and figure out what happened is [Allentown City] Council member Josh Siegel; he is the only person who has actively went out of his way to ask what happened - how can this go on - and actually ask for a fair hearing.”

Santiago said she would continue speaking up about the “broken system,” saying that “this could not have happened for the first time and everybody be so comfortable about it,” and said calling for fair hearings and ensuring every vote is heard is a bipartisan issue.

“Election is a democracy. That is not a Democratic or Republican issue, that is something everyone should want,” she told The Press. “You want the right person to get elected because you voted, whether we agreed on it or not, as long as you vote and the person you voted for gets elected by the majority of the state, the county or the district.

“That should be the person representing you. It is a democracy, and that is the only way we can keep fighting for equality.”