Emails indicate Ellis-Marseglia suggested that criminals perform election work

Part of a trove of hundreds of Bucks County officials’ emails recently obtained by parent activist Jamie Cohen Walker after years of litigation show the county apparently considered hiring people on probation — criminals — as election workers.

In a September 10, 2021 email to Probation and Parole Department employees Christine Shenk and Michael Harrison, Bucks Chief Clerk Gail Humphrey told them that County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D) “suggested I reach out to you to ask if you have any adult probation clients who would like to work at the Board of Elections for the month of October through November 3. The position is Ballot Box Clerk…. We need to fill about 20 positions and have only filled seven. The candidates need their  own transportation and [to] be willing to interact with the public. The job is simply manning the ballot box of our public libraries and reminding the public that they may only put their own ballot in the box. We will provide full training for all candidates and have county cell phones stationed at each location so that they will be able to ask any questions necessary during their shift.”

Responding to that email, Harrison said Tom Freitag, head of the Board of Elections, would discuss “offense restrictions” with Humphrey. Humphrey, the wife of state Rep. Jim Prokopiak (D-Levittown), also asked David Kratz, director of corrections for the county, about prisoners “on work release” for the election positions. 

Walker responded to these emails, by saying, “I am not at all shocked Democrats prefer to hire possible felons to watch ballot boxes, considering they illegally changed health guidance for 80,000 children, sued parents to hide their own words, and openly defied the law to count ballots that were invalid.

“In Montgomery County the Democratic Commissioners appointed a convicted murderer to a board. This is what democrats do and people continue to vote for them unfortunately. People want a lawless society,” Walker said.

Two Democrats, Commissioners Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie Jr., are in charge of the three-person board, with Republican Gene DiGirolamo in the minority.

Asked to comment, Ellis-Marseglia took a swipe at President Donald Trump.

“Don’t you think it’s kind of an odd question considering a convicted felon is literally sitting in what’s left of the White House he bulldozed?” she said.

“And while that apparently may be ok for the presidency, Bucks County’s hiring standards preclude any department from hiring a convicted felon to any position,” she continued.” We did reach out to the Adult Probation Department during the 2021 general municipal election cycle to help fill much needed per-diem positions. While there are many probation clients with misdemeanors or summary offenses — who are not felons — that may have been looking for work, they never took us up on the offer. As far as we’re aware, none ever applied, or were hired to, ballot box clerk positions. We are interested in moving forward and getting the multitude of jobs done we were sent here to do. One of the bipartisan efforts we take great pride in is lifting people up and out of the criminal justice system, ending the vicious cycle of incarceration, by turning individuals back into productive members of society who contribute to the tax base instead of taking from it.”

“The other,” she said,”is maintaining election integrity. In the face of a pandemic, amid intimidation tactics from outside agitators, and under enormous national pressure, this administration has run 12 successful elections in the purplest county in America. Through it all, we are enamored by being on the right side of history during this incredibly tumultuous time in our country. If you want to help us work toward any of those goals, we post new listings every Friday afternoon.”

Another surprising comment made by Ellis-Marseglia via email was at the height of the Covid epidemic when county and state governments required residents to wear masks in most places.

“I don’t think masks work,” Ellis-Marseglia told Health Department Director Dr. David Damsker on December 9, 2020, about inmates in the county jail.  

“Are you going to become an anti-masker?” Damsker responded with a smiling emoji. He noted inmates were required to wear masks when outside their cells.

Regarding an October 2020 rally for President Trump at the Pennridge Airport, Ellis-Marseglia said, “I called [businessman Jim] Worthington and told him he would have to comply with space and masking, or I would have to get (the) health department involved.”  

“At the very least make sure people are masked,” said Damsker.

During the pandemic, Damsker provided Covid guidance for schools, governments, the jail, businesses, and homeless shelters. Chester County official health official Jeanne Casner attended a Bucks County meeting to learn what Damsker advised and brought his recommendations back to her county, the emails indicated.

Parents seeking to have their children return to school as soon as possible lauded Damsker, who gave advice for reopening the schools, with masks and distancing, in the fall of 2021. However, the state Department of Health overrode Damsker.

 “Since the very beginning of Covid-19, our health department has avoided making ‘reactive’ decisions as much as possible,” Damsker said in another email. “The guidance we give, while at times different from PA DOH/CDC, is always based on a combination of safety and pragmatism.”

“For schools, we have to decide as a community if we are going to haphazardly shut all school-related things down every time there’s a case, or move forward in a commonsense way that will allow functioning (i.e. businesses don’t close after a case in an employee.) Covid-19 is likely going to be around for a long time, becoming a part of everyday life for the foreseeable future. Modified quarantine has allowed us to ensure those exposed are able to continue on, but very cautiously.”

Walker sent her right-to-know requests because she became suspicious about whether Damsker issued the county’s later COVID school guidance or if another official, a sometime Democratic operative who helped Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie get elected, did so. While the county rebuffed most of her requests, they did grant a few.

“I noticed that Diane Marseglia had a second, nonpublished email account,” said Walker, who filed requests regarding that account.

After the state Office of Open Records awarded the emails to Walker and fellow requester Megan Brock, the county sued them to keep officials’ emails secret. Bucks County spent nearly $23,000 on an outside law firm to handle the litigation and wound up being sanctioned by a judge, hit with $3,000 in the plaintiff’s legal fees. Walker was represented by local lawyer Chadwick Schnee and the public interest law firm Judicial Watch.

Linda Stein is a Philadelphia-area journalist.