DV Journal

As state legislatures here in Florida and across the country reconvene, it’s evident that voters are polarized. Many Americans falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen, and some politicians are seizing upon Americans’ concerns about election security for their own personal gain. It is in our interest and our duty as Americans to put aside the partisan vitriol and understand that we have every reason to trust, and uphold, the integrity of our elections.

Ultimately, Americans should trust the integrity of our elections because they are safe, fair, and secure. More than that, our elections are one of the greatest expressions of our freedom as Americans.

I know firsthand that our elections work because these institutions make up the foundation of my American life. When Cuba was taken over by Fidel Castro and his communist regime, my family fled to America in search of freedom and the rule of law. In 1972, I was sworn in as a citizen in the old bandshell in downtown Miami, and as I took the oath of allegiance, I knew I wanted to be a part of the American dream and participate in the political process. I registered to vote and, as a teacher, enjoyed teaching students of all ages English, civics, and other subjects. I wanted everyone to see what I saw: That the promise of America was, and is, true and attainable, regardless of educational or socio-economic background.

In continuing my public service career in the Florida legislature, I ran for Congress in 1989 and was honored to become the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress. I wanted to help strengthen the traditions that enabled my American journey. In my almost 30 years serving in Congress, I had the privilege of being chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs where I worked to defend our national security and our way of life.

As a Member of Congress, I had many opportunities to meet with young activists and dissidents who were doing more than seeking freedom for their countries. They believed in the idea of America. I was constantly amazed by their admiration for the American way—especially for our free, fair, and open elections. Because while it may seem commonplace and ordinary to us, having free elections is a part of what makes America exceptional. It’s something we should never take for granted. These dissidents told me so, firsthand.

And there’s a reason our system is the envy of so many: It works. Our elections in Florida run smoothly and securely, as Governor Ron DeSantis has explained. Just last October, the governor dismissed calls for an audit of our election results because Florida’s standard election integrity safeguards held and the election succeeded “with flying colors.” 

The integrity and uniqueness of American institutions are worth taking a step back and analyzing the claims made by election skeptics. Perhaps the results of the 2020 presidential election were not the result we wanted, but the truth is clear: President Joe Biden won. Even if we disagree with that outcome, it is our privilege and duty as patriotic Americans to accept the outcomes of free and fair elections and celebrate the peaceful transfer of power that is envied by many around the world.

All across the country, American officials are working hard to make sure voting access does not come at the expense of election integrity and that they are well-equipped to handle the challenges we’ll face in 2022 and beyond. It’s not just Florida doing this, either.

Utah, for instance, is controlled by Republicans from the governor’s mansion to both houses of the state legislature. Utah Republicans also created one of the most accessible election processes in the country, adopting a vote-by-mail system that reached 90 percent voter turnout in 2020. As one Republican elections official explained, “Utah really exemplifies the mantra of ‘Easy to Vote, Hard to Cheat’ with our elections.”

That’s part of why my family fled the brutal repression of the Castro regime, and that’s something I heard over and over again from dissidents fighting for freedom in their countries when I was a Member of Congress.

It’s time for Americans to unite and protect the integrity of our election system. We do that by continuing to create access to the polls while maintaining election security—and by respecting the outcomes of our elections.

Our democracy is unique and many around the world long for the freedoms and respect for the rule of law that we may take for granted. We should proudly defend and uphold our open, free, and fair election process.

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If you have voted in Pennsylvania, anyone can view your personal information including your name, gender, date of birth, and date you registered to vote. It tells if you are an active or inactive voter, and when you last changed voter status or party affiliation. Also, your residential and mailing addresses, and your polling place are included. It details the last date you voted, your school, state legislature, and congressional district. It contains your voter history, and the date that record was last changed. Anyone can read this. It just costs $20 on the Pennsylvania Department of State web site.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Senate’s Intergovernmental Operations Committee’s presented arguments for their subpoena to the Commonwealth Court for election processes as well as additional personal information about you. The committee seeks details including guidance issued by the Department of State to county election officials, including training materials and directives. That sounds reasonable. But in addition, it demands the release to the Committee of voter data including some things that are already publicly available and some that are not. They want your driver’s license and the last 4 digits of your social security number. This is supposedly in the cause of election integrity. But not to worry. The politicians assure us that this additional personal data will be kept “secret” by them.

How many times will we need to receive apologies from companies and institutions because they suffered a data break-in containing our personal information? In 2021 alone, millions of “secure” data files were stolen and sold on the ‘dark web’. It is becoming clear that the only sure way of protecting personal data is to not provide it.

Given the challenges of data security faced by even the most sophisticated data protection firms, why would we create the tempting target for identity thieves of a single store of personal data? This database would contain your name, address, date of birth, driver’s license number and partial social security numbers – all in one convenient-to-download file. Driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers, we would argue, are unnecessary for the Committee’s stated purpose of auditing the election.  There is already significant individual voter data available publicly.

This committee demand is an unreasonable waste of resources and a dangerous exposure of voter’s personal information. Hopefully, the court will see the problems inherent in this plan and act to protect the public from yet another exposure of personal information.

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A new poll from Muhlenberg College found a striking level of distrust in the election process among Pennsylvania voters, especially Republicans, with the 2022 primaries less than four months away.

The poll, which echoes similar results of national polls, shows 38 percent do not believe the last election was conducted fairly, and a similar 41 percent believe there was “widespread election fraud.” Seven of 10 Republicans believe there was widespread fraud in 2020.

Christopher Borick

“The persistence of beliefs that there was widespread election fraud in 2020 among a significant portion of the Pennsylvania electorate, despite no evidence of that happening” was the poll’s most interesting conclusion, said Christopher Borick, director of Muhlenberg’s Institute of Public Opinion. “The high levels of distrust in almost all institutions and electoral processes among Republicans is also noteworthy.”

Republican voters voiced a higher level of distrust for every institution of state government than others. That distrust extended to the GOP-controlled legislature.

Only 49 percent of Republicans strongly or somewhat believe the legislature will provide a safe, secure, and accurate election, the poll found.

“I’m not sure how many voters know which party controls the state legislature, so maybe that partially explains the high levels of distrust Republican voters have for that institution,” Borick said. “However, I think there is a significant portion of the Republican electorate that simply distrusts all things related to government right now.”

“The lingering distrust we are seeing in the 2020 election is due to the ongoing parroting of Donald Trump’s lies,” Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa said. “His loyal, but misguided, messengers continue to sow the seeds of doubt about our elections without a shred of evidence or proof. They are eroding faith in our process, which is ironic given that many of them were elected through the very same process and do not question the validity of their own races.”

In one of the seven press releases issued by Trump on Jan. 6, he attacked the House committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol last year for not addressing the 2020 election.

“Why is it that the Unselect Committee of totally partisan political hacks, whose judgment has long ago been made, not discussing the rigged presidential election of 2020?” he asked. “It’s because they don’t have the answers or justifications for what happened. They got away with something, and it is leading to our country’s destruction.”

And in a recent  NPR interview, Trump reiterated his claim there was a “corrupt election” in Pennsylvania, among other swing states. In particular, he repeated a claim that there were more votes in Philadelphia than there were voters.

While the raw total number of voters who cast ballots in Philadelphia was high, the turnout rate compared to registered voters was 65.9 percent—meaning there was about 34 percent of registered voters who did not vote. Additionally, Trump pulled in a higher proportion of the vote in Philadelphia than he did in 2016, contradicting claims that Democrats ran up their own vote margin in the city.

While distrust is high among Republicans, it is not absent among Democrats. A majority of Democrats—57 percent—believe voter suppression is the biggest threat to the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.

That common belief among Democrats has fueled their own version of stolen elections, including Beto O’Rourke’s losing Senate campaign in Texas, Andrew Gillumm’s losing gubernatorial run in Florida, and Stacey Abrams’ losing campaign for governor in Georgia. Democrats have also objected to the result of each presidential election they have lost since 2000.

Claims of widespread voter suppression are, however, belied by data. According to the census bureau, overall voter turnout is higher than at any time in the last century. Black turnout continued its trend upward, having only been higher during the 2008 and 2012 elections. And turnout among Hispanics hit a record in 2020.

Democrats’ concerns over voter suppression largely do not extend to efforts by the Republican-controlled legislature to reform state election laws, however.

Among Democrats, 46 percent strongly or somewhat believe such reform efforts are meant to secure elections, while only 37 percent strongly or somewhat believe such reforms are meant to make it harder to vote.

Among all voters, county election officials are the most trusted to provide a safe, secure, and accurate election while Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, is the least trusted.

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How did an election-reform measure in Pennsylvania that was almost universally supported by Republicans become a rallying point for conservative protesters who believe the 2020 election was stolen?

The answer is, in part, Republicans’ dismay in the way the Democratic governor and the Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court enacted procedural changes, based on interpretations of the law, that appear to have favored Democrats in the last presidential race.

“Everybody thought this was a good idea — a great idea, in fact — until Trump spoke out against it,” Duquesne law professor Joe Mistick told PublicSource.

The state law known as Act 77, which enabled “no-excuse” mail-in voting, passed with overwhelming support from the GOP-controlled legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Oct. 31, 2019.

The Democrat-backed initiative was a compromise between both parties as each got something in return, although one political commentator compared the process to a Looney Tunes-inspired “rabbit season-duck season” standoff between lawmakers ending with Republicans on the wrong side of the barrel.

The mail-in expansion meant voters no longer required valid excuses, such as illness or out-of-state travel, to cast absentee ballots. And Republicans, at least initially, felt they won by eliminating straight-ticket voting, which tended to favor down-ballot Democrats because of the imbalance in the number of registered Democrats to Republicans in some areas, like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

That meant more voters could conceivably split their ticket by voting for one party in the presidential election and for another in state and local races.

Prominent state leaders touted the accomplishment at the time, with Republican state Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, now a gubernatorial candidate, calling it “probably the most historic reform bill we’ve ever done, not only in my time but in decades.”

Those feelings quickly dissipated once President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He and his allies, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, disputed Pennsylvania’s electoral process with unproven claims about mail-in voting and election results.

Hawley argued against the Electoral College certification of Biden’s victory, saying Pennsylvania hadn’t followed its own election laws – a common refrain among Republicans raising legal challenges over the Keystone State’s voting.

Corman, who was among the Republicans who voted for Act 77, now has buyer’s remorse. In a statement to the Delaware Valley Journal, he accused Wolf and former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar of “giving illegal, last-second directions” to county officials about how to process mail-in ballots.

“Their behavior led two counties in one senatorial district to tabulate votes differently and change the outcome of an election,” he said. “That’s unAmerican and why I’m pushing forward with the legislature’s constitutional responsibility to review our elections. As governor, I will make sure something like this can never happen again. All Pennsylvanians must have confidence that their vote will be counted fairly and legally.”

Republicans continue to try to overturn Act 77, which survived a previous court challenge.

Over the summer, a pair of lawsuits were filed challenging the constitutionality of Act 77. Those cases were combined and are moving forward, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) introduced a measure in November that seeks to repeal parts of the historic election-reform law via a referendum. If SB 884 is passed by the General Assembly, voters will decide whether to do away with “no-excuse” mail-in voting altogether.

The bill would also impose a deadline for mail-in ballots to be received by the Friday before Election Day, unlike the 2020 election when courts ruled ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 counted as long as they arrived within three days of Election Day. It would also mandate signature verification for all mailed ballots.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the lone Democrat running for governor, says passing SB 884 would be a complete repudiation of the votes of Republicans in the legislature. Act 77 had the support of all 27 Republicans, and passed 138-61 in the House, he noted.

A spokesman for Shapiro told DVJournal the law “helped millions of Pennsylvanians make their voices heard and led to the highest voter turnout in the last six decades. Attorney General Shapiro believes it is critical to make voting accessible to all eligible Pennsylvania voters, and as governor, he would veto any bill that eliminates or restricts mail-in voting.”

Mastriano’s bill attempts to quash that by making it impossible for the winner of the gubernatorial race to veto the bill, which awaits action from the state government committee, before it appears on the ballot in May 2023.

“As we witnessed in 2020, Act 77 in its current form is susceptible to unconstitutional changes that weaken its election security safeguards,” said Mastriano, citing a poll that found a third of Pennsylvania voters who cast ballots in the 2020 election “were not confident” in the results. “Significant doubt in the validity of one’s vote has serious repercussions for our republic. SB 884 will allow the people of Pennsylvania to have the final say on these important election security measures.”

Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster) said in a statement that Republicans who voted for the bill didn’t expect “what came about” after Act 77 was signed into law.

“Gov. Wolf weaponized the State Department to pervert the law as passed, and a partisan Supreme Court allowed those perversions to stand,” he said. “I have voted for legislation to reverse the State Department’s misdeeds, implement Voter ID and the other things necessary to ensure the integrity of future elections.  I support these changes and even a constitutional amendment if necessary to make sure bureaucratic misdeeds that do not follow the law can never happen again, whether we have an Act 77 or not.”

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“There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty, but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind,” Robert F. Kennedy said in 1966.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic reached our shores, the country and the Delaware Valley have been living in “interesting times,” to say the least. Everything from shopping to education to sports has been seen through the lens of COVID, and whether it might lead one to contract it or would mitigate the virus.

Local and state governments collected numbers and issued mandates. Schools were locked down, reopened, and some locked down again. One of the biggest political stories the Delaware Valley Journal covered in 2021 was the rise of parent power. Parents objected to COVID lockdowns and masks at school board meetings, parents opposed to Critical Race Theory, and shocked parents asking school boards to remove what they deem as pornographic books from school libraries, along with school boards limiting parents’ free speech rights.

This also gave rise to election victories for school board candidates who promised not to shut down schools again and the successful statewide political strategy of Back to School PA PAC, which gave about $700,000 to back those candidates’ campaigns.

Another big story this year is crime and violence in Philadelphia, arguably driven by progressive prosecution—or lack thereof—by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office headed by DA Larry Krasner, who was re-elected in November. As of this writing, 555 people were victims of homicide in Philadelphia in 2021—a horrific new record.

At the state government level, voters sent a clear message to Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in May when they approved ballot initiatives limiting his emergency powers. It was a also the year when amazing numbers of Republican candidates began vying for the governor’s seat in the 2022 primary, along with similarly large  fields of hopefuls of both parties seeking the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pat Toomey. The Senate race, which may tip the balance of the Senate, could become one of the most closely-watched political contests in the U.S.

The 2021 election process in some DelVal counties also came under fire as delays, mistakes, and mail-in ballots caused consternation.  That has also been a huge issue nationwide since former President Donald Trump questioned the validity of the election process that resulted in his defeat in the swing states, including Pennsylvania. And a lawsuit was filed against Delaware County officials alleging malfeasance in the handling of the 2020 election there.

Another statewide issue in the DelVal Journal was Wolf’s unilateral plunge into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a move that will undoubtedly limit Pennsylvania’s job growth and drive up energy costs for businesses and residents.

RGGI is supposed to reduce greenhouse gases by an auction process for power producers and industrial plants in 12 states, which buy credits to offset emissions. But those other RGGI states are not energy producers like Pennsylvania, with its wealth of natural gas.

And we have closely followed the controversy over the $6.1 billion Mariner East II pipeline. Some residents who live in the vicinity of the pipeline along with public officials have fought the pipeline, while overlooking clear benefits from the pipeline for employment, safety over rail or truck transport, and reduced energy costs. Luckily, for the economy of the DelVal region those efforts appear to have failed and the project is on track for completion.

Locally, Hurricane Ida hit some DelVal areas hard with flood damage as streams overflowed their banks while tornadoes pummeled parts of Bucks and Montgomery Counties.

National issues of inflation and supply-side woes also affected the Delaware Valley region as the Biden administration’s energy and regulatory policies began to be felt here.

In Norristown, the DelVal Journal broke a story regarding Norristown Area School Board President Shae Ashe sending sexually suggestive messages on social media to an underage Norristown High School girl. In the wake of those articles, Ashe resigned from the board and, although he was re-elected, did not return to it.

In Delaware County, the new Health Department, promised by Democrats who were elected to a majority in the county council in 2019, is taking shape and expected to open in 2022. It will cost taxpayers an estimated $10 million its first year.

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For the November 2021 general election, Back to School PA, a bi-partisan PAC, awarded close to $700,000 in funding for school board races across the state.  Back to School PA supported 54 local PACs in 17 different counties, ranging from the Southeast to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Erie and included suburban, rural, and urban districts. Back to School PA funding supported over 200 candidates and achieved a 60 percent success rate for its first endeavor. PACs were awarded funding solely based on their mission to keep schools open and hold those accountable who kept schools closed.  Funding decisions were not made based on political party or winnability of the election.

Back to School PA is pleased to announce that Beth Ann Rosica is the new Executive Director, effective December 1, 2021.  Rosica served as the Chief Strategy Officer since the PAC’s inception in July 2021. She worked closely with Clarice Schillinger, the former Executive Director. Schillinger spearheaded the grassroots initiative by identifying community advocates, assisting them to set up new PACs, providing funding and training for school board candidates, and serving as a resource throughout the entire electoral process. Back to School PA is eternally grateful to Schillinger for her dedication, leadership, commitment, and hard work to ensure that our schools are never closed again.  Stay tuned for more information on Schillinger’s next steps in January.

Rosica holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of underserved and at-risk children and families. Under her leadership, Back to School PA has expanded its mission from keeping schools open and holding those accountable for closing schools to addressing the large learning loss and mental and behavioral health issues related to school closures.  Pennsylvania children have suffered immensely over the last 22 months, and it is imperative that we work tirelessly to get them caught up academically and back on track emotionally and behaviorally.  Back to School PA will be providing resources to assist parents, teachers, and school districts to address these issues.

In addition to serving as a Think Tank for Pennsylvania in 2022, Back to School PA has also identified several other states where our mission and strategy could be replicated.  In an analysis of states that were most impacted by school closures that have school board races in 2022 and do not have a governor race, there are four targeted states:  Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky.  Back to School PA will be identifying potential partners and community advocates in those states to assist them in replicating the success experienced in Pennsylvania. Back to School PA remains committed to keeping our schools open and addressing the consequences of extended school closures.

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The results of the 2021 elections aren’t looking great for progress in the next cycle. The spreadsheet from this year’s results shows many easy misses and many hard-ball truths. The Democratic Party continues to spread itself too thin while boasting that its big tent can represent both centrists and leftists.

Certainly from the bullpen, the Blue Sox appear to appeal to a large number of spectators. From the national league, you have rookie Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in left field striking out with Democratic Socialists by putting Medicare for All back into the batting cage. While they also have seasoned-player Kyrsten Sinema playing short-stop on raising the minimum wage.

Those broad swaths of ideology should give them a hometown advantage, but when a conservative batter charges the mound, there simply is no solidarity, no nine-on-one fight.

This is where the four pillars of the Green Party give our pitchers better guidance. Green Party elected officials from school boards to mayors have fundamental shared beliefs in peace, ecological wisdom, social justice, and democracy,  https://www.gp.org/the_four_pillars.

The penalty for the Blue Sox’s MVP Joe Biden’s trajectory toward right-field was especially shocking to many since his election. Even when the pitch towards progress appears right down the pike, he surprises us with new levels of disappointment. This renowned switch-pitcher cares more for those sitting in their box seats as high-paying patrons, rather than most of us sitting in the nosebleed seats trying to catch a fly-ball–just once.

It appears the Democrats need to work on some basic teamwork, instead of pointing fingers from right to center field. Their in-field in-fighting and failure to pass their own basic platform initiatives — even with the stats stacked in their favor — continue to disenfranchise the entire franchise. They really should have been watching the Republicans who were busy stealing home plate by winning disproportionately in 2021, from local judges in Pennsylvania to the shocking results in Virginia. As Democrats kick sand at each other, fans have grown bored with their antics. Ticketholders are looking for some easy wins, or at the very least shying away from the mixed signals that catcher Jaime Harrison and his DNC are sending.

So, Blue Sox, do you want to “Defund the Umpires,” “Reform the Umpires,” or raise their wages and hire more umpires? The latter appears to be one of the many screwballs angering activists, many of whom played a major role in electing Joe Biden president. In this example, the Green Party sends a very straightforward cutter as the focus must be on hyperlocal, grassroots democracy that carries over into redefining the roles of umpires in our communities: More justice, less crime,  https://www.gp.org/social_justice#criminal-justice-reform.

In Pennsylvania, the Blue Sox aren’t even playing ball. While their opponents are filling up the bases, Democrats are busy at the concession stand, selling merchandise for whatever clever social buzzwords and hashtags they can put on a team jersey. Which is not to say supporting social causes via merchandise is bad; but when that money is being funneled and held by the team owners, it’s a problem. By the way, the Green Party also has merchandise, but the money you spend on our cool items goes right back into building a league of our own. Check it out here, https://www.gpofpa.org/merchandise.

The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity.

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The Montgomery County and Bucks County boards of elections have filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of State secretary seeking to clarify the rules for mail-in and absentee ballots.

At issue is whether ballots where voters do not include a date with their signature as instructed can still be counted.

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that a county board of elections must have a compelling reason for refusing to canvass a ballot due to minor irregularities,” the suit said. And it added, “The legislature has failed to provide any clarification for voters or county boards of election regarding the voter’s declaration.”

Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) said the legislature is filing a brief to intervene in the case, which is pending in Commonwealth Court. According to the docket, state lawyers asked for more time to respond to the suit, which was filed Oct. 1.

Grove, who chairs the House Government Committee, said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued rulings in the 2020 election to permit the counting of mail-in ballots in an Allegheny County race that were not properly signed and dated.

The state Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 23, 2020 against a challenge brought by Nicole Ziccarelli, who lost a close state Senate election, regarding the validity of 2,349 mail-in ballots that were signed but not dated. A four-justice majority held that not dating the ballots “did not warrant the disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvania voters.”

“Uniformity, that’s our big issue with the elections,” Grove said. “You’re seeing non-uniform policies.”

Grove said the changes requested in the lawsuit filed by Bucks and Montco officials had been part of previous legislation vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf. In an op-ed in “The Federalist,” Grove accused the county officials of working to advance the goals of the Democratic Party through the courts, rather than working with legislators to fix the state’s election laws.

However, new election laws were introduced in the legislature to make the voting process smoother.

“As the Voting Rights Protection Act moves through the legislative process, the committee today took steps to ensure elections across the commonwealth’s 67 counties are uniform and that all voters are treated equally,” Grove said, on his website. “We also took a major step toward holding non-elected public servants accountable in terms of ensuring ballot questions actually up on ballots.”

Grove cited these bills:  Senate Bill 738 by Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) would require the Department of State to post a tracker on its website for the public to monitor every step and action item the department is taking to ensure proper compliance to carry out a proposed constitutional amendment.

And House Bill 1482 by Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) would require the Commonwealth and each county in this Commonwealth to implement a post-election audit using an approved auditing method.

In addition, House Bill 2044 by Rep. Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland) would end private funding for public elections in the commonwealth.  More than $20 million was given by a nonprofit related to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg went to 21 Pennsylvania counties that were trending Democratic or had a majority of Democratic voters in 2020.

While there were widely reported issues with the 2020 election, there have also been problems with the Nov. 2 2021 election, particularly with mail-in ballots in Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties.

In Indiana County, Grove said, voters were given the wrong instructions for mail-in ballots, then the corrected instructions issued were also incorrect.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” he said.

He is very concerned about the 2022 election cycle, since the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat will be contested and large numbers of voters will likely cast ballots. The Senate seat, now held by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is not running again, could decide which party controls of the Senate and is widely thought to be a seat that might flip to the Democrats.

“Next year in Pennsylvania there will be a nationalized election for the outcome of Congress,” said Grove.  “We want to at least make sure Frances Wolf does not become confused in the next election.” Grove was referring to a widely reported error by the first lady, who dropped off her husband’s mail-in ballot, in violation of election laws.

A spokesperson for Wolf called that incident “an honest mistake.”