Daveen Rae Kurutz – Beaver County Times
There’s nothing to see here in Pennsylvania when it comes to voter fraud, Pennsylvania leaders said Wednesday.
During a press call, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and members of the #SaveTheVote campaign reiterated that the alleged voter fraud in Pennsylvania touted by President Donald Trump during last week’s debate was proven false.
“The president and his enablers can tweet about fraud, but when we go to court, we have to prove it and he has failed to back up any of the wild assertations that he has made,” Shapiro said. “In fact, the accusations of fraud here in Pennsylvania have been disproven, not just by me and my office, but by the FBI and local officials and the court of record.”
Shapiro was referencing allegations Trump made that poll workers were “thrown out” of satellite voting offices in Philadelphia, as well as references to a handful of absentee military ballots that were improperly opened and discarded by a contracted staff at the Luzerne County election office.
Shapiro noted that the state has been repeatedly sued to make it harder for people to vote and easier for ballots to be discounted. He discounted the idea that the Trump campaign might try to stop Pennsylvania’s election results from being certified and called the rhetoric “noise.”
“I mostly just sort of ignore the noise,” Shapiro said. “I think there’s some people who are just trying to somehow get into the president’s twitter feed and show them that they can also make some outlandish statements like him.”
Lamb, D-17, Mt. Lebanon, said as a veteran, he swore an oath to the Constitution, not to a particular president or a political party, to guarantee every American the right to vote. One party, he said, made a “direct and concerted attack” on the rights of all Americans to vote. He underscored the safety of voting by mail. An Allegheny County resident, Lamb said he already received his mail-in ballot, filled it out, mailed it back and already received an email verifying it was received.
“Don’t let any politician undermine your faith in this most valuable of our national institutions,” Lamb said. “They tried, they failed … I am fully confident that the Postal Service is capable of handling this election. They handle more pieces of mail every day than the total number of votes by mail that will be cast across the election.”
Shapiro and Lamb both encouraged voters to make a plan on how they will vote next month and stick to it, whether that is voting by mail, voting at an election satellite center early or casting a ballot in-person on Nov. 3.
“We need to drown out the president’s rhetoric and ignore the doubt that he is trying to sow about this election and make a plan to vote today,” Shapiro said. “We’ve always had confidence in the process. In my office, we’re doing everything within our power to make sure that we have a fair and safe election and that every legally eligible vote is secured and counted.”
ABOUT SAVE THE VOTE:
The Save The Vote campaign coordinates messaging and grassroots activities among the coalition partners in three key areas:
• Promoting and providing updates around safe, reliable voting options in the upcoming election
• Exposing Donald Trump’s efforts at voter suppression, including his attempts to undermine the U.S Postal Service
• Debunking misinformation related to voting and the election, including around vote-by-mail and the likelihood that election results will be delayed given the coronavirus crisis.
— savethevoteamerica.org