Seven election cycles have concluded since PA Republican and Democrat legislators bypassed their constituents to pass ACT 77 (later amended as ACT 12), upending an 82-year old election system right before a critical presidential race. The implementation of the law caused statewide confusion and disenfranchisement for voters and election workers. Election officials from various counties have declared 2020 as the most frustrating and expensive election year ever. Yet, it continues.
The government is charged to protect and secure elections; they are not permitted to disenfranchise legal voters. Disenfranchising can be result of practices that are either unfair or illegal. Throughout Pennsylvania, millions of legal voters were disenfranchised due to unusual incidents that compromised their votes. Citizens who requested a mail-in ballot never received one. The others complained about receiving a ballot they never requested. That is unlawful. They were denied their right to vote in person on Election Day and were forced to vote provisionally. Pennsylvania’s election results prove that hundreds of thousands of electors were forced to vote a provisional ballot in 2020. After the election, votes received a formal letter stating their vote did not count at all or were only partially counted. The damage occurred, but no remedy was offered, except to vote provisionally. Election officials and the legislators who created the law, defended the election code instead of addressing the irregularities that surfaced in every county. Disenfranchised Pennsylvanians remain resolved to force their legislators to restore a safe election process. It’s the law! It’s their right!
A second and vital protection for disenfranchised citizens against an unjust law is found in our Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment stating “…no law can create unequal protection under the law.” Yet, specific election provisions in Act 77 empowered county boards of elections to establish satellite offices known as “one stop shops,” which created an unequal election system to protect mail-in ballots. Nothing like this ever existed until Act 77. Satellite offices operated under loose rules diabolically opposed to traditional voting precincts. There are at least five distinct election provisions that denied Pennsylvania’s voters equal protection under the law due to satellite offices. Voters throughout the state have formed teams to unite in the fight to secure and restore integrity to future elections. They are not giving up on eliminating the five election provisions that weakened and stole their voices in every election that followed.
1. Satellite offices opened fifty days prior to Election Day, seven days a week, seven to eight hours a day for voting. Drop boxes were available twenty four hours a day.
In addition, drop-boxes were available for twenty-four hours a day. Traditional voting precincts operated on one election day for thirteen hours during each election. At the end of a thirteen-hour day, the voting stopped. The doors were locked, voting machines were closed and election materials were securely delivered to the County Board of Elections for processing. The chain of custody at satellite offices are not clear.
Philadelphia’s 17 satellite offices tallied 102 voting days, or approximately 2,940 additional hours for in-person voting. It would take approximately 226 precincts, opened for thirteen hours on Election Day, to match the number of Philadelphia’s satellite offices. That could cover an entire county. The hours provided for voting in satellite offices are drastically unequal.
2. Satellite offices disproportionately favor Democrats.
Thirty-nine satellite offices were only opened in predominately Democrat voting areas such as Philadelphia and Allegheny County. In 2020, Philadelphia opened seventeen offices, Allegheny opened eight offices. Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery County also opened satellite offices.
3. Satellite office workers were “curing ballots” at the drop box locations.
Witnesses observed an employee at a satellite office asking certain voters if they placed their ballot in the “privacy ballot” envelope before sealing the outer declaration envelope and signing it. If a voter was uncertain, the employee asked the voter to open the outer declaration envelope to see if the ballot was in secured in the small “BALLOT” envelope. That action enabled the employee to see how the individual had voted. After the voter removed the ballot from the original signed declaration envelope (with a Sure ID#), he was offered a privacy “BALLOT” envelope and a new declaration envelope that did not appear to have a SURE ID barcode on it for tracking purposes. Later, the satellite office coordinator stated they did not put SURE ID barcodes on the envelopes. This procedure does not comply with the government’s purpose for issuing Sure IDs to voters. Traditional voting precincts do not cure ballot envelopes. Likewise, the election workers at the County Board of Elections workers do not see an opened ballot until 7:00 a.m. on Election Day.
4. Satellite offices, referred to as “one stop” shops, provided an individual the ability to register to vote and immediately register for a mail-in ballot and submit their ballot.
The voter could receive a ballot and vote straightaway. There is noted concern that such provisions make it quick and easy for non-citizens to vote. A person can register to vote with a driver’s license or with the last four digits of a social security ID. Under Obama’s Amnesty package, millions of illegal immigrants were given a driver’s license. Likewise, Foreign exchange students working in the USA are issued social security cards in order to get paid for working. Therefore, it is possible for an illegal or foreign exchange students to vote at satellite offices.
Contrary to voting at satellite offices, traditional voting precincts present a voter register book, which contains the name and signature of all registered residents for that precinct. The voter is required to sign his/her name next to the signature in the register book. The signature helps the poll worker to verify the voter. Voters wanting a fair election are not offended but are supportive of this type of careful voter verification system. It provides accuracy and prevents fraudulent votes. This type of voting security measure is ignored at satellite offices.
5. Satellite Offices do not permit poll watchers.
Poll workers at satellite offices can ignore legitimate election rules without being challenged by a trained poll watcher. For example, an observer at a satellite office noticed a voter standing at a high-top table with a privacy cardboard trifold on it. An election worker remained next to him while he was voting. Twice, she tapped her pen on the ballot, prompting him to bend over and begin marking where she tapped. The observer asked the worker if she and the voter had filled out the proper “assistance form” since he was getting assistance. The employee protested, saying she wasn’t “assisting” him. The observer suggested for her to step away from the voter to ensure privacy, according to the law. An election supervisor entered the area and told the observer she could not challenge the action of the worker because that was a “satellite office” of the County Board of Elections, not a polling place. However, the challenger stated it was a voting area since he was voting on an official ballot and was submitting his ballot in the drop box to be counted at the County Board of Elections. A policeman was asked by the supervisor to remove the “challenger.”
At a traditional voting precinct, the judge of elections would have responded by following the election code and having the voter and assistant sign a white “assistance” form. A voter’s unwillingness to sign the form insinuates there is something to hide that should be revealed in a fair and transparent election. Why wouldn’t satellite offices permit trained poll watchers into the voting area? This is the most disturbing concern of disenfranchised voters.
The changes in ACT 12 eliminated five critical security provisions for voters, and voters want them back. Their electoral voice was bypassed and discounted by legislators paid to represent them. Fair elections are gone from sight due to the unequal protections under the law, a violation of the Constitution, that led to unlawful actions and voter disenfranchisement. The voices of this disenfranchised electorate simply want their secure and fair elections back, and that requires eliminating satellite offices
Third World Countries are accustomed to operating under unequal voting procedures that corrupt the outcomes of an election. This is America, and unequal protections under the law cannot continue because the Constitution forbids it, regardless if politicians passed it without reading it.
For every illegal vote counted, a legal vote is discounted. “The people who cast the votes don’t decide the election, the people who count the votes do.” Joseph Stalin.
Stay tuned for Election Infection, Parts 2 & 3.
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