FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      April 13, 2020

Contact: Sam DeMarco

Ph: 412.370-1737

Chairman DeMarco: What is Rich Fitzgerald Thinking?

PITTSBURGH – Republican County Councilman and GOP Chairman Sam DeMarco today issued the following statement about the county executive’s call to send blank ballots to every registered voter in the county. 

"This proposal is more worthy of 1930s Jersey City than Allegheny County in the 21st Century. Sending out blank ballots without a voter request surrenders control of the entire process and opens the door to massive fraud. 

Our voter rolls already carry large numbers of suspect registrations. We found one man with eight separate registrations at the same address. Under the proposal, would eight separate ballots be sent to this address?

A mass mailing of ballots to the entire voter list means election officials lose control of the process the minute the ballots hit the mail. There is a reason polling places have judges of elections, poll watchers, and county constables to keep order. With a mass mailing of unsolicited ballots, there is nothing to prevent operatives from using pressure, trickery or outright bribery. It also opens the door to “ballot harvesting” in which people could simply steal the ballots from the mailboxes of voters, and then cast them.

We currently have a vote-by-mail system that should be adequate for those who actually want to cast a ballot, and the proposal to simply mail out ballots and abandon an orderly process opens the door to the worst possible outcomes.”

"Say NO to Rich Fitzgerald's ill-conceived ideas!"

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