Cortés, Gleason Still Sparring
Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés today called continued allegations by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania against state and county elections officials disappointing.
“The majority of the counties in Pennsylvania are controlled by Republican Commissioners. While the Republican Party may not have confidence in the counties’ abilities to administer a fair election, we do,” Cortés said.
Working collaboratively, the state and counties continue to make final preparations for a fair, accurate, accessible and secure election on Nov. 4.
Three of the primary safeguards, Cortés added, are the database that helps stop fraud before it even has the chance to start; the laws that require voter identification and signature verification; and the laws that criminalize voter fraud.
Pennsylvania’s Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) continues to be used by the counties to process applications. Last week, nearly 150,000 voter registration applications were outstanding. Today the number is less than 20,000, with only a handful of counties still needing to process applications.
SURE prevents voter fraud through a system of checks that verifies an applicant’s driver’s license or Social Security Number. Since the 2007 general election SURE has rejected more than 200,000 applications for various reasons, most of which were duplicate registrations.
For more information about voter rights, responsibilities and preparations, visit VotesPA.com, or call 1-877-VOTESPA (868-3772).
Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. was joined at a press conference today by former Supreme Court Justice and PAGOP Fair Elections Task Force Chair Sandra Newman where they announced the creation of the PA GOP Fair Elections Web page and a new toll-free number to track voter fraud complaints.
“It has become clear that the Secretary of the Commonwealth is not doing enough to help address the situation created by his favorite group ACORN,” Gleason said. “The flawed registrations that county boards of election offices have already discovered indicate that we have a serious problem on our hands and these issues need to be resolved before it’s too late. County election offices are overwhelmed and we have a responsibility to make certain that the outcome of our elections truthfully portrays the will of the people and that is why we have developed the PA GOP Fair Elections Web page, www.wewantafairelection.com, and developed a hotline at 1-877-51-PAGOP (1-877-517-2467), which will be live first thing tomorrow morning.
“Where Secretary Cortes is greatly failing in his duties is that he is not making it clear on his own application for an absentee ballot, which is available on his Web site, that first time absentee ballot voters need to show identification. First time voters have to provide identification in some form with the application or absentee ballot, and the Secretary is not requiring this info and that is a clear instance where he has been negligent in his duties. We have concerns that ACORN knows the weaknesses in the system that the Secretary has allowed, and may try to exploit these loopholes to their advantage.”
“The Web page will function as another resource for voters to express the problems they are experiencing with registration so that we can help get to the bottom of these issues as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Justice Newman added. “We are witnessing this situation in multiple counties and it is affecting a lot of Pennsylvanians. That is why we are urging the Secretary of the Commonwealth to take serious action and why we will do whatever it takes to guarantee the sanctity of the voting process.”
“The majority of the counties in Pennsylvania are controlled by Republican Commissioners. While the Republican Party may not have confidence in the counties’ abilities to administer a fair election, we do,” Cortés said.
Working collaboratively, the state and counties continue to make final preparations for a fair, accurate, accessible and secure election on Nov. 4.
Three of the primary safeguards, Cortés added, are the database that helps stop fraud before it even has the chance to start; the laws that require voter identification and signature verification; and the laws that criminalize voter fraud.
Pennsylvania’s Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) continues to be used by the counties to process applications. Last week, nearly 150,000 voter registration applications were outstanding. Today the number is less than 20,000, with only a handful of counties still needing to process applications.
SURE prevents voter fraud through a system of checks that verifies an applicant’s driver’s license or Social Security Number. Since the 2007 general election SURE has rejected more than 200,000 applications for various reasons, most of which were duplicate registrations.
For more information about voter rights, responsibilities and preparations, visit VotesPA.com, or call 1-877-VOTESPA (868-3772).
Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. was joined at a press conference today by former Supreme Court Justice and PAGOP Fair Elections Task Force Chair Sandra Newman where they announced the creation of the PA GOP Fair Elections Web page and a new toll-free number to track voter fraud complaints.
“It has become clear that the Secretary of the Commonwealth is not doing enough to help address the situation created by his favorite group ACORN,” Gleason said. “The flawed registrations that county boards of election offices have already discovered indicate that we have a serious problem on our hands and these issues need to be resolved before it’s too late. County election offices are overwhelmed and we have a responsibility to make certain that the outcome of our elections truthfully portrays the will of the people and that is why we have developed the PA GOP Fair Elections Web page, www.wewantafairelection.com, and developed a hotline at 1-877-51-PAGOP (1-877-517-2467), which will be live first thing tomorrow morning.
“Where Secretary Cortes is greatly failing in his duties is that he is not making it clear on his own application for an absentee ballot, which is available on his Web site, that first time absentee ballot voters need to show identification. First time voters have to provide identification in some form with the application or absentee ballot, and the Secretary is not requiring this info and that is a clear instance where he has been negligent in his duties. We have concerns that ACORN knows the weaknesses in the system that the Secretary has allowed, and may try to exploit these loopholes to their advantage.”
“The Web page will function as another resource for voters to express the problems they are experiencing with registration so that we can help get to the bottom of these issues as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Justice Newman added. “We are witnessing this situation in multiple counties and it is affecting a lot of Pennsylvanians. That is why we are urging the Secretary of the Commonwealth to take serious action and why we will do whatever it takes to guarantee the sanctity of the voting process.”
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