The Lehigh County Election Board decided Wednesday to ask District Attorney Jim Martin and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to investigate alleged irregularities committed by a judge of elections in the June 2 Democratic primary.

After hearing five hours of testimony, the board deliberated behind closed doors for about 10 minutes before deciding that there is credible evidence that a longtime election official and admitted supporter of the winning candidate may have acted improperly.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Enid Santiago, a candidate for state representative, who lost the primary by 55 votes to incumbent Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh. The winner of the Democratic nomination is typically the winner of the seat because of the overwhelming number of registered Democrats in the Allentown district. There are no Republicans running for the seat.

The allegations indicate that the election judge, Erika Bickford, altered ballots to favor her opponent and handed out Schweyer pens at the polling place where she served. Bickford has denied the charges. County voter registrar clerk Tim Benyo said he saw Bickford copy a voter’s selections onto a new ballot after the voting machine did not accept the original.

Bickford said she darkened ballots on fewer than 10 occasions and trimmed uneven ballots about 20 times so they could be read by the computer. Benyo reprimanded Bickford on Election Day but took no further action because he felt that Bickford’s indiscretions were not malicious or did not constitute voter fraud.

After meeting in executive session following the testimony, the election board concluded that Bickford’s activities were “possibly fraudulent, irregular and a violation of the Election Code.”

The board hired a special counsel, former Judge Emil Giordano, to serve as the board’s solicitor for this case since its usual counsel, John Ashcraft, also had been accused by Santiago of failing to report the alleged infractions to law enforcement officers. Ashcraft had been alerted to the incidents on primary day by Benyo but also saw no need for further action beyond the reprimand.