ACLU Challenges Lancaster Elections Board, Saying Its Actions Were “Illegal”
Lancaster County Commissioners lash out at Department of State, media coverage during work session
Lancaster County Commissioners lash out at Department of State, media coverage during work session
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called out the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners, calling its statement about the concerns about registering Franklin & Marshall College students to vote “dishonest” and its actions “illegal.”
On Monday, commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino were critical of media coverage of the case, as well as of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt who wrote a letter to the Board demanding that the Board investigate the claims that F&M students are not being registered to vote.
Parsons, chair of the Board, said an article from LNP | Lancaster Online was “demonstrably false. We can prove it in a court of law.
“Now, it is true that you can be registered in two jurisdictions. That makes sense, right? What you can’t do is go back and forth in the law in two jurisdictions. If you now live in Pennsylvania, you have to live in Pennsylvania.
“So these are false claims,” he continued. “Which then essentially were labeled as voter suppression. They’ve resulted in incendiary and threatening language directed at the county.”
In 1979, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the right of college students to register where they go to school in its 1979 case, Symm v. U.S.
D’Agostino, one of two Republicans on the Board along with chair Josh Parsons, said in a statement to LNP that the elections office handled applications from F&M students the same as any others.
“This is all demonstrably proven and we’ve also confirmed all of this with F&M,” D’Agostino wrote. “It is disappointing that the secretary sent a letter repeating false and misleading information after we had already spoken to the department.”
Commissioner Alice Yoder, the lone Democrat on the three-member Board, said county Elections Director Christa Miller had worked in recent days to address unresolved voter applications from the college.
Yoder also said the elections office would not ask for information about previous registrations, even though the county’s official statement suggested that policy would continue.
“The party line from the county commissioners and the board of elections is dishonest” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “County elections staff erected hurdles before eligible voters, either deliberately or due to incompetence. We have spoken to multiple people who say that they were discouraged or prevented from registering by Lancaster elections staff because they were registered elsewhere or didn’t have the identification that elections staff demanded. Several of these people then went and unregistered in the other state. They would not have done that unless they were told to do so.”
College president Barbara Altmann also pushed back against the county commissioners, who claimed in their written statement that F&M officials were giving students faulty information about requirements to vote in Pennsylvania.
“The College and F&M Votes understand the law,” Altmann said, “and we provide our students with only accurate information about the voter registration and voting processes.”
“At least one voter who was already registered in the county was removed from active status when he tried to get a mail ballot,” said Walczak. “That was illegal. And there is a digital history demonstrating proof positive that Lancaster took this illegal action and when they did it. Fortunately, that voter is now registered (as of yesterday), after media coverage and advocacy by the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“We can see digital footprints demonstrating conclusively that registrations delivered in mid-September are only now being entered into the system. Their claim that they have done everything perfectly defies reality.”
In reference to Schmidt, Parsons lambasted the Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth who previously served as a Philadelphia City Commissioner.
“This is not the activity of a person who is administering an election in a nonpartisan way,” he said. “This is the activity of a political operative. To my knowledge, Schmidt has never taken the time to visit or get to know the people who actually run elections here in Lancaster County.
“He has spent four years talking about how we need to stop misinformation and stop attacking our nonpartisan election workers. Yet, this appears to be exactly what he’s doing here.”
Walczak responded by saying, “That said, we are now seeing registrations being entered properly, after letters from ACLU-PA and the secretary of state were sent to the county, pointing out their illegal behavior. We will continue to track that process. Sadly, we will never know how many eligible voters who wanted to register were illegally discouraged from doing so. But we will be able to track the county’s registration activities going forward.
“We certainly appreciate the county taking appropriate steps to approve the registrations now, but, rather than gaslight everyone to claim that they did everything right, they should admit errors. Their refusal to do so raises serious concerns about both why this happened in the first place and whether the county has the will to take necessary steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“We hope and expect that Lancaster County’s elections staff will now quickly approve registrations from all eligible citizens well before Election Day.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called out the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners, calling its statement about the concerns about registering Franklin & Marshall College students to vote “dishonest” and its actions “illegal.”
On Monday, commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino were critical of media coverage of the case, as well as of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt who wrote a letter to the Board demanding that the Board investigate the claims that F&M students are not being registered to vote.
Parsons, chair of the Board, said an article from LNP | Lancaster Online was “demonstrably false. We can prove it in a court of law.
“Now, it is true that you can be registered in two jurisdictions. That makes sense, right? What you can’t do is go back and forth in the law in two jurisdictions. If you now live in Pennsylvania, you have to live in Pennsylvania.
“So these are false claims,” he continued. “Which then essentially were labeled as voter suppression. They’ve resulted in incendiary and threatening language directed at the county.”
In 1979, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the right of college students to register where they go to school in its 1979 case, Symm v. U.S.
D’Agostino, one of two Republicans on the Board along with chair Josh Parsons, said in a statement to LNP that the elections office handled applications from F&M students the same as any others.
“This is all demonstrably proven and we’ve also confirmed all of this with F&M,” D’Agostino wrote. “It is disappointing that the secretary sent a letter repeating false and misleading information after we had already spoken to the department.”
Commissioner Alice Yoder, the lone Democrat on the three-member Board, said county Elections Director Christa Miller had worked in recent days to address unresolved voter applications from the college.
Yoder also said the elections office would not ask for information about previous registrations, even though the county’s official statement suggested that policy would continue.
“The party line from the county commissioners and the board of elections is dishonest” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “County elections staff erected hurdles before eligible voters, either deliberately or due to incompetence. We have spoken to multiple people who say that they were discouraged or prevented from registering by Lancaster elections staff because they were registered elsewhere or didn’t have the identification that elections staff demanded. Several of these people then went and unregistered in the other state. They would not have done that unless they were told to do so.”
College president Barbara Altmann also pushed back against the county commissioners, who claimed in their written statement that F&M officials were giving students faulty information about requirements to vote in Pennsylvania.
“The College and F&M Votes understand the law,” Altmann said, “and we provide our students with only accurate information about the voter registration and voting processes.”
“At least one voter who was already registered in the county was removed from active status when he tried to get a mail ballot,” said Walczak. “That was illegal. And there is a digital history demonstrating proof positive that Lancaster took this illegal action and when they did it. Fortunately, that voter is now registered (as of yesterday), after media coverage and advocacy by the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“We can see digital footprints demonstrating conclusively that registrations delivered in mid-September are only now being entered into the system. Their claim that they have done everything perfectly defies reality.”
In reference to Schmidt, Parsons lambasted the Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth who previously served as a Philadelphia City Commissioner.
“This is not the activity of a person who is administering an election in a nonpartisan way,” he said. “This is the activity of a political operative. To my knowledge, Schmidt has never taken the time to visit or get to know the people who actually run elections here in Lancaster County.
“He has spent four years talking about how we need to stop misinformation and stop attacking our nonpartisan election workers. Yet, this appears to be exactly what he’s doing here.”
Walczak responded by saying, “That said, we are now seeing registrations being entered properly, after letters from ACLU-PA and the secretary of state were sent to the county, pointing out their illegal behavior. We will continue to track that process. Sadly, we will never know how many eligible voters who wanted to register were illegally discouraged from doing so. But we will be able to track the county’s registration activities going forward.
“We certainly appreciate the county taking appropriate steps to approve the registrations now, but, rather than gaslight everyone to claim that they did everything right, they should admit errors. Their refusal to do so raises serious concerns about both why this happened in the first place and whether the county has the will to take necessary steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“We hope and expect that Lancaster County’s elections staff will now quickly approve registrations from all eligible citizens well before Election Day.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called out the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners, calling its statement about the concerns about registering Franklin & Marshall College students to vote “dishonest” and its actions “illegal.”
On Monday, commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino were critical of media coverage of the case, as well as of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt who wrote a letter to the Board demanding that the Board investigate the claims that F&M students are not being registered to vote.
Parsons, chair of the Board, said an article from LNP | Lancaster Online was “demonstrably false. We can prove it in a court of law.
“Now, it is true that you can be registered in two jurisdictions. That makes sense, right? What you can’t do is go back and forth in the law in two jurisdictions. If you now live in Pennsylvania, you have to live in Pennsylvania.
“So these are false claims,” he continued. “Which then essentially were labeled as voter suppression. They’ve resulted in incendiary and threatening language directed at the county.”
In 1979, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the right of college students to register where they go to school in its 1979 case, Symm v. U.S.
D’Agostino, one of two Republicans on the Board along with chair Josh Parsons, said in a statement to LNP that the elections office handled applications from F&M students the same as any others.
“This is all demonstrably proven and we’ve also confirmed all of this with F&M,” D’Agostino wrote. “It is disappointing that the secretary sent a letter repeating false and misleading information after we had already spoken to the department.”
Commissioner Alice Yoder, the lone Democrat on the three-member Board, said county Elections Director Christa Miller had worked in recent days to address unresolved voter applications from the college.
Yoder also said the elections office would not ask for information about previous registrations, even though the county’s official statement suggested that policy would continue.
“The party line from the county commissioners and the board of elections is dishonest” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “County elections staff erected hurdles before eligible voters, either deliberately or due to incompetence. We have spoken to multiple people who say that they were discouraged or prevented from registering by Lancaster elections staff because they were registered elsewhere or didn’t have the identification that elections staff demanded. Several of these people then went and unregistered in the other state. They would not have done that unless they were told to do so.”
College president Barbara Altmann also pushed back against the county commissioners, who claimed in their written statement that F&M officials were giving students faulty information about requirements to vote in Pennsylvania.
“The College and F&M Votes understand the law,” Altmann said, “and we provide our students with only accurate information about the voter registration and voting processes.”
“At least one voter who was already registered in the county was removed from active status when he tried to get a mail ballot,” said Walczak. “That was illegal. And there is a digital history demonstrating proof positive that Lancaster took this illegal action and when they did it. Fortunately, that voter is now registered (as of yesterday), after media coverage and advocacy by the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“We can see digital footprints demonstrating conclusively that registrations delivered in mid-September are only now being entered into the system. Their claim that they have done everything perfectly defies reality.”
In reference to Schmidt, Parsons lambasted the Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth who previously served as a Philadelphia City Commissioner.
“This is not the activity of a person who is administering an election in a nonpartisan way,” he said. “This is the activity of a political operative. To my knowledge, Schmidt has never taken the time to visit or get to know the people who actually run elections here in Lancaster County.
“He has spent four years talking about how we need to stop misinformation and stop attacking our nonpartisan election workers. Yet, this appears to be exactly what he’s doing here.”
Walczak responded by saying, “That said, we are now seeing registrations being entered properly, after letters from ACLU-PA and the secretary of state were sent to the county, pointing out their illegal behavior. We will continue to track that process. Sadly, we will never know how many eligible voters who wanted to register were illegally discouraged from doing so. But we will be able to track the county’s registration activities going forward.
“We certainly appreciate the county taking appropriate steps to approve the registrations now, but, rather than gaslight everyone to claim that they did everything right, they should admit errors. Their refusal to do so raises serious concerns about both why this happened in the first place and whether the county has the will to take necessary steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“We hope and expect that Lancaster County’s elections staff will now quickly approve registrations from all eligible citizens well before Election Day.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called out the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners, calling its statement about the concerns about registering Franklin & Marshall College students to vote “dishonest” and its actions “illegal.”
On Monday, commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino were critical of media coverage of the case, as well as of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt who wrote a letter to the Board demanding that the Board investigate the claims that F&M students are not being registered to vote.
Parsons, chair of the Board, said an article from LNP | Lancaster Online was “demonstrably false. We can prove it in a court of law.
“Now, it is true that you can be registered in two jurisdictions. That makes sense, right? What you can’t do is go back and forth in the law in two jurisdictions. If you now live in Pennsylvania, you have to live in Pennsylvania.
“So these are false claims,” he continued. “Which then essentially were labeled as voter suppression. They’ve resulted in incendiary and threatening language directed at the county.”
In 1979, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the right of college students to register where they go to school in its 1979 case, Symm v. U.S.
D’Agostino, one of two Republicans on the Board along with chair Josh Parsons, said in a statement to LNP that the elections office handled applications from F&M students the same as any others.
“This is all demonstrably proven and we’ve also confirmed all of this with F&M,” D’Agostino wrote. “It is disappointing that the secretary sent a letter repeating false and misleading information after we had already spoken to the department.”
Commissioner Alice Yoder, the lone Democrat on the three-member Board, said county Elections Director Christa Miller had worked in recent days to address unresolved voter applications from the college.
Yoder also said the elections office would not ask for information about previous registrations, even though the county’s official statement suggested that policy would continue.
“The party line from the county commissioners and the board of elections is dishonest” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “County elections staff erected hurdles before eligible voters, either deliberately or due to incompetence. We have spoken to multiple people who say that they were discouraged or prevented from registering by Lancaster elections staff because they were registered elsewhere or didn’t have the identification that elections staff demanded. Several of these people then went and unregistered in the other state. They would not have done that unless they were told to do so.”
College president Barbara Altmann also pushed back against the county commissioners, who claimed in their written statement that F&M officials were giving students faulty information about requirements to vote in Pennsylvania.
“The College and F&M Votes understand the law,” Altmann said, “and we provide our students with only accurate information about the voter registration and voting processes.”
“At least one voter who was already registered in the county was removed from active status when he tried to get a mail ballot,” said Walczak. “That was illegal. And there is a digital history demonstrating proof positive that Lancaster took this illegal action and when they did it. Fortunately, that voter is now registered (as of yesterday), after media coverage and advocacy by the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“We can see digital footprints demonstrating conclusively that registrations delivered in mid-September are only now being entered into the system. Their claim that they have done everything perfectly defies reality.”
In reference to Schmidt, Parsons lambasted the Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth who previously served as a Philadelphia City Commissioner.
“This is not the activity of a person who is administering an election in a nonpartisan way,” he said. “This is the activity of a political operative. To my knowledge, Schmidt has never taken the time to visit or get to know the people who actually run elections here in Lancaster County.
“He has spent four years talking about how we need to stop misinformation and stop attacking our nonpartisan election workers. Yet, this appears to be exactly what he’s doing here.”
Walczak responded by saying, “That said, we are now seeing registrations being entered properly, after letters from ACLU-PA and the secretary of state were sent to the county, pointing out their illegal behavior. We will continue to track that process. Sadly, we will never know how many eligible voters who wanted to register were illegally discouraged from doing so. But we will be able to track the county’s registration activities going forward.
“We certainly appreciate the county taking appropriate steps to approve the registrations now, but, rather than gaslight everyone to claim that they did everything right, they should admit errors. Their refusal to do so raises serious concerns about both why this happened in the first place and whether the county has the will to take necessary steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“We hope and expect that Lancaster County’s elections staff will now quickly approve registrations from all eligible citizens well before Election Day.”
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