Chester County Commissioner Eric Roe

This is the greatest nation on earth, and I thank God for making me an American. Happy birthday, USA. You look good for 250!

And yes, I’m also pretty happy about the Treaty of Paris 242 years ago. Without it, I couldn’t have married the prettiest girl in England and moved her here 😉 🇺🇸💪🏻

To every Chester County resident living with Down syndrome: I’m glad you’re my neighbor. Thank you for making this world a better place.

Today, Chester County laid to rest a man who served his community for 57 years. At the risk of sounding trite, George “Bud” Turner was truly a great American. Many of you know him as the past Fire Chief of the West Whiteland Fire Company. Others knew him as a man who was dedicated to his family and friends, who showed up for everyone in his life. Even on the day he passed away, he showed up to an emergency call and later made it to the department’s annual awards banquet. He served his neighbors right up to the end. Bud Turner’s time on this side of eternity may have come to an end, but the impact of his leadership in this county will not soon be forgotten. Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Bud Turner never had to ponder very long to answer that question. May his legacy and memory be a blessing to us all.

Last night, many residents of Pocopson Township were concerned by the sight and sound of helicopters and drones in the air. In a post-Cavalcante world, you can understand why people living near the County Prison would be concerned by this. However, no inmates escaped, no detained criminal juveniles escaped, and there was no danger to the public. Most people don’t know this, but the Chester County Youth Center has two facilities within it: A juvenile detention center AND a shelter for youth. The youth in the shelter are not treated like criminals because they’re not criminals. They’re not locked up, or locked in for that matter. Last night, the County sent out an alert to nearby residents to share that a teen girl DID run away and that state police were searching for her, and I’m pleased to share that she has been located and is safe. Here’s the backstory:

Chester County has a facility we call the Youth Center. It has two parts. One part is a juvenile detention facility for adjudicated minors who have committed crimes or await trial. Another part of the facility acts as a shelter. The shelter houses youth, but they are NOT being criminally detained. That’s an important distinction. They live there, much like a young person might live with foster parents or live in a group home of some kind. They aren’t supposed to run away, but they aren’t locked in either. So, much like some teenagers run away from home, teenagers housed in the shelter occasionally leave on their own volition. Staff try to stop them, but the staff can’t tackle them like they could if the teen were a detained criminal. In situations like this, the protocol is for the County to call the police, much like you would do if your teenager ran away from home. The police then treat it as a missing person case and search for them. This does happen from time to time at the Youth Center. So what’s different about last night?

What’s different is that police used drones and helicopters to search for the missing teenager in an area near the County Prison. When the County got word that the police were using drones and helicopters, we put out an alert using ReadyChesco to nearby residents. A reverse-911 call also went out. The township also sent out an email. While these communications certainly encouraged the community to help locate her, they were also meant to tell people what was happening, dispel rumors, and reassure that there was no threat to the public or reason to panic.

I’m pleased to share that the missing teen has been located and is safe. The residents who received the ReadyChesco alert last night should soon get another one letting them know she has been located. Again, not all the juveniles housed at the Youth Center are detained. Some are simply housed there. Those teens have different legal rights than teens that are locked up for criminal offenses. And Pennsylvania’s talented state troopers are good at what they do. They find missing people all the time, and they’ve got the tools to do it. That’s just what they did last night, and I’m grateful for their successful efforts. However, it’s not lost on me that seeing drones and helicopters near the county prison brings back a lot of painful memories and rightfully had a lot of people very concerned. As your county commissioner, I wanted to make sure I explained this publicly in case it’s helpful to you.

The other day, my colleagues and I formally created a Voter Registration Commission, and we are one of two counties in Pennsylvania to do so. Later that day, I spent some time manually reviewing the poll books that are being used in today’s primary election. A sampling of 10% of the poll books was performed to ensure that the poll books were exactly how they should be. I looked through a precinct I am particularly familiar with (New Garden South 2) and the poll books looked just how they should look for a primary election. I checked for party affiliation, signatures, correct alphabetical order, and notations showing whether a voter had already voted by mail or requested a mail-in ballot. I was satisfied with what I saw. Fast forward a few days, and today’s primary seems to be running smoothly.

As a reminder, Pennsylvania has closed primaries, meaning that only voters registered with a major party (the Republican and Democratic Parties) may participate in primaries, unless there is a ballot question or referendum or a special election coinciding with the primary. I was told by staff from the Department of Voter Services that there are no such ballot questions, referenda, or special elections in which independent, unaffiliated, or minor party voters may participate in today in Chester County. For that reason, independents are intentionally left out of the poll books today, but they will be listed in the poll books in the general election this November. There are still just over 2.5 hours left, so if you’re eligible, please come out and vote today.

Happy Mother’s Day, Chester County!

I’m relieved to learn that the President, his cabinet, and our nation’s journalists and members of the press are safe. In this country, we settle our differences through free speech, debate, the exchange of ideas, and a free press - the very things the White House Correspondents’ Dinner celebrates. Not political violence. My prayer for our nation tonight is that every last one of us would recommit ourselves to that truth.

Happy Easter, Chester County!

At the last Board of Elections meeting, several members of the public asked how much last November’s poll book error cost the taxpayers. I now have that approximate number: $100,907.69

These are costs that the taxpayers would not have incurred, if not for the poll book error. As you’ll see below, some of those costs were paid for with county tax dollars, and others were paid for with state grant money.

One additional figure that I don’t have yet is the cost in overtime for staff from the Department of Voter Services, because it’s not quite the exact science you might think it is. In every election, the staff from that department accrue overtime hours, just by the nature of Pennsylvania’s election laws. For example, ever since Act 77 of 2019, the last day to request a no-excuse mail-in-ballot is only one week before Election Day. This creates a tight turnaround window for those MIB applications to get processed, which invariably involves staff overtime. On top of that, this election obviously involved even more than the usual number of overtime hours. When I have a rough estimate of how much more costly last year’s overtime was than a normal election’s overtime, I’ll update my post. In the meantime, I wanted to share the information below.

You’ll also see that, thankfully, the Voter Services Department came in under budget last year. That obviously doesn’t excuse anything, since the tax dollars spent on the poll book error could have been used for other things if they hadn’t been needed for this. I just share that information to add the context that other county departments’ funds don’t seem to have been depleted as a result of the error. Again, not excusing anything, just adding a little context.

These are also only the hard costs. There are other costs that can’t be easily calculated, like the cost of the additional time it took many voters to cast their ballots, or just the mental cost of shaken confidence among the voters.
We obviously have a lot of work to do to rebuild that confidence, and I’m committed to ensuring we do.