Commissioners Advise Clinton County Residents to Be Vigilant Due to Fraudulent Voter Activities

By Emily Wright

LOCK HAVEN— The Clinton County Commissioners held their bi-weekly work session Monday morning and discussed a data-sharing agreement for the Child Welfare Information System (CWIS) for 2025-2026 to be voted on during Thursday’s meeting. Commissioners also heard from Steve Gibson, Clinton County Director of Planning and County Engineer, regarding two bids received for the Bald Eagle Valley Trail Phase Five project. At the conclusion of the meeting, Commissioner Snyder provided a warning about election-related scams and fraudulent voter registration activities taking place locally and advised residents to be cautious about sharing their personal information. 

Phase Five of the Bald Eagle Valley Trail (BEVT) project extends the trail from where Katie’s Crossing ends to approximately the Avis/Pine Creek area. The entire project cost is covered by a $1M Transportation Alternative Set Aside program grant, with no cost to taxpayers. 

There were two bidders for the BEVT project: LTT Trucking and Glenn O. Hawbaker. LTT’s bid was slightly under Gibson’s estimate, with a bid amount of $606,699.00. The low bid has been reviewed and approved by Gibson, PennDOT, and the county solicitor, and the commissioners will vote at Thursday’s meeting to award the project to the low bidder. 

Next to address the board was Autumn Bower, Clinton County Children and Youth Services (CYS) director, who presented information about the Child Welfare Information System (CWIS) Data Sharing agreement, which must be approved by the commissioners and submitted yearly. The agency uses a system called the Child Accounting and Profile System (CAPS), which exchanges information with the Child Welfare Information System (CWIS). The Department of Human Services uses data collected from these county systems for state-level data sharing. The agreement for the service is for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, and there is no cost associated with it. The commissioners will vote to approve the agreement at Thursday’s meeting. 

Last, Commissioner Snyder provided an important advisory to Clinton County voters about election scams taking place in the county: “I would like to advise residents to not provide personal identifying information over the phone, text, or email in response to any election-related communication from an unknown or unfamiliar source, and do not click on suspicious links embedded in an election-related communication from an unknown or unfamiliar source. It is not possible to register to vote, apply for a mail ballot, or cast a vote by phone, text, or email in Pennsylvania,” Snyder emphasized. 

“Residents should also exercise caution if a person going door to door claims to be from the voter services or if they refuse to identify themselves or disclose with what candidate, party, or organization they are affiliated, particularly if they attempt to obtain personal identification information or financial information. Voter services employees do not conduct door-to-door solicitation of any kind. This is a scam that’s going on around the county, especially because it’s a presidential election,” he said. “Be careful. Know who you’re dealing with and know that we do not have voter registration people doing these types of things.” 

The commissioners will meet for their voting session at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 11, 2024, in person at the Piper Building’s second-floor conference room, and the meeting will also be available via live stream on the Clinton County Government Facebook page.