At its Nov. 16, 2023, meeting, Northampton County Council spent more than an hour discussing the Nov. 7, 2023, election and an issue with the voting machines that arose that morning.

Adam Carbullido, vice president of ES&S, spoke on the matter. He said the error occurred with the labeling of the contest title verbiage on the physical ballot cards and reports. It had no effect on electronic votes.

ES&S is implementing steps to prevent any further issues, including a visual inspection of printed cards in the office and from its counties. The company will also modify its logic and accuracy tests.

The county previously had issues with ES&S in 2019 when the touch screens were too sensitive.

“I personally can’t see a third mistake, no matter how minor. It can’t happen again,” Councilman Ron Heckman said.

Heckman also stated he does not believe the blame lies entirely on ES&S.

A majority of council members felt the situation, on top of 2019, will make voters lose confidence.

“What happened [in November 2023] trampled on what so many of my folks lost their lives for. Do you know how much that hurts?” council President Kerry Myers said.

In other business, council members introduced a variety of motions to be voted on at the next meeting.

The first ordinance proposes to set the real estate tax rate at 10.8 mills. Another proposes edits to ordinance 446-2006, which outlines rules for county council meetings. Four conditions may be added to the code.

County council next meets 6:30 Jan. 4 at the county building 669 Washington St., Easton.