June 1, 2020  Contact: Kevin Tatulyan

412.458.0068

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

PITTSBURGH – Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco today denounced Gov. Wolf’s dictatorial decision to iextend the primary election in selected counties – a move DeMarco says opens the door to an array of hijinks.

“The governor just did an hippopotamus stomp across the Constitution with this action,” DeMarco said. “Voters have had months to apply for, receive and return mail-in ballots, and yet the governor has chosen a half-dozen counties where the rules suddenly don’t apply.”

Allegheny County is among the six counties in which Wolf declared that voters now have until Tuesday June 9 – one week after the lawful election date – to return mail-in ballots. The announcement makes no mention of whether votes cast on June 2 will be tallied and the results announced while many voters have pending mail-in ballots yet to be returned.

Among the races affected by the decision are state House and Senate races that cross county boundaries, meaning that voters in Allegheny County will have an additional week to vote while citizens in the adjacent counties will be held to the June 2 deadline.

In House District 33, 39, 40 and state Senate District 37, voters in Washington and Westmoreland Counties will have less say because they will have had less time to mail in their votes.

“Gov. Wolf has just found a way to violate the one-person one-vote rule that is vital to a functioning democracy,” DeMarco said. “This smacks of a Caribbean election in 1960, not an American election in 2020.”

Special interest groups attempted to extend the voting deadline and were turned away in court three times before Wolf issued his executive order Monday.

“What the special interests couldn’t win in court they were given by a governor who lacks respect for the rule of law,” DeMarco said. “In the midst of a pandemic emergency, Tom Wolf has chosen this moment to consolidate his power as an autocrat.”

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