Pennsylvania
PoliticsPA: Department of State Intervenes in F&M Votes/Lancaster County Voter Registration Dispute
Steve Ulrich of PoliticsPA reports on Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt’s call to investigate claims of improper voter registration.
In a tersely worded letter, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt today demanded that the Lancaster County Board of Elections investigate the claims that Franklin & Marshall College students are not being registered to vote.
The three-page letter to Commissioners Josh Parsons, Ray D’Agostino, and Alice Yoder, who comprise the Elections Board, instructs them to immediately compel the elections office to “properly adjudicate all registration applications in compliance with Pennsylvania law.”
Schmidt also told the Board to reinstate all registrations which have been erroneously placed on hold.
The letter was sent to the Lancaster County Board of Elections after the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) became aware that the elections office “has been non-compliant with state and federal law regarding two important processes in exercising the franchise: registering to vote, and requesting a mail-in ballot or absentee ballot (“mail ballot”) in-person at a county elections office (“on-demand requests”).