ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Lehigh County voters on Tuesday approved expanding the county election board to five members, adding a seat that now goes to independent and unaffiliated voters and leaving no party with a majority.
Referendum 1 passed 99,218 to 28,379, or about 78% to 22%, in unofficial county results posted Wednesday morning, with some mail and provisional ballots still being counted. It won in all 158 voting precincts.
The board runs the county’s elections and makes the results official. Until now, the county executive’s party has always controlled it.
The board has had three members: the county executive, who chairs it, and one Democrat and one Republican picked by the county commissioners. That arrangement, set in the county’s Home Rule Charter, means “the board is always controlled by the executive’s party,” County Executive Josh Siegel wrote in May. Today it is Siegel, a Democrat; Democrat Jennifer Allen; and Republican Michael O’Hare.
The new board will have two seats for each of the county’s two biggest parties, now Democrats and Republicans, and one for the next-biggest group, now voters registered as independent or with no party. The county executive will no longer have a vote, Siegel wrote. The change takes effect immediately, according to the county.
For the first time, residents can apply to serve. Applications are due Monday, Nov. 23, for four-year terms starting Feb. 1, 2027, under the application commissioners had on their Oct. 28 agenda.
“This is a huge win for Independent voters,” County Commissioner Ron Beitler, an independent, said in a release Wednesday. “For the first time, Independent and unaffiliated voters will have a voice on the board responsible for overseeing our elections.”
Beitler, who switched his registration from Republican to independent this year, said the board is believed to be the first in Pennsylvania to give a voting seat to people outside the two major parties.
“Election oversight should not be controlled by either major political party,” he said. “Voters have sent a clear message that they want a more representative and accountable system.”
Who voted yes
Independents alone could not have passed it. State registration figures for Tuesday’s election count 53,712 Lehigh County voters outside the two major parties. The question drew 99,218 yes votes, so even if every one of those voters said yes, at least 45,506 yes votes came from Democrats and Republicans.
That group is about 1 in 5 county voters, 20.9% of 256,830, and it is growing. Since the November 2024 election it has gained 1,887 voters, while Democrats lost 1,724 and Republicans lost 2,053, according to the state’s counts.
Support was lowest in North Whitehall Township, at 69%, and highest in Allentown and Fountain Hill, at about 81%, according to the county’s precinct results.
What the board does
The current board is scheduled to make Tuesday’s results official this month, with its last meeting set for Nov. 23.
This year it approved ballots, sent staff to find drop-box sites for a special election, hired Chief Clerk of Elections Michael Paston and made the primary results official, its minutes show. In September it was set to decide on five new “smart” drop boxes.
Its posted minutes show no party split: every vote from November 2025 through June passed with no one voting against it.
How it got on the ballot
Commissioners voted 8-1 on May 13 to put the question to voters, on a motion by Commissioner Sarah Fevig, Siegel wrote. Commissioner Sheila Alvarado voted no.
Alvarado said that as a poll worker she has met many voters who don’t know only party members can vote in Pennsylvania’s primaries, and that changing the board does nothing for them, according to Siegel’s account.
How to apply
Applicants must live in Lehigh County and have kept the same party registration, or no party, for at least two years. They cannot hold elected office or be running for one. Which group gets the fifth seat is set by Nov. 1 registration numbers, with “no party” and “independent” counted as one group.
The application asks for written answers, a resume and a state financial disclosure form. It can be filed online at lehighcounty.org, emailed to commissionersoffice@lehighcounty.org, mailed or dropped off at the Commissioners Office, Room 408, 17 S. Seventh St., Allentown. Questions go to 610-782-3050.
The other county questions
Voters also approved letting the county print legal notices in one newspaper instead of two, 51.3% to 48.7%, and letting any commissioner, not just the board chair, sit on the county Retirement Board, 63.1% to 37.0%.
