As Lycoming County voters noticed at the recent election, there was a new voting system introduced to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It involves a paper ballot that is inserted into a scanner — a verifiable and auditable ballot. While we might blame our Harrisburg bureaucrats for this, the blame should be pointed further south, all the way to Washington, D.C. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had announced in August of 2018 that by the 2020 election, all fifty states were to have ballots that could be audited.

The Trump Administration has been seriously concerned about voter fraud since 2016, and though some see these concerns as a red herring, the evidence points to a continuing problem. The website whitehouse.gov lists 1,071 proven instances of voter fraud, which have resulted in 938 criminal convictions and 43 civil penalties.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is one of the culprits. Over a 20-year-period, Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles officials have allowed thousands of noncitizens to register to vote, and many have actually voted. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) forced Allegheny County election officials to disclose hundreds of pages detailing how noncitizens were regularly offered voter registration by government employees and third-party drives, despite language barriers and clear understandings as to what they were signing. At least 27 percent of noncitizens cast at least one ballot prior to removal and noncitizens remain registered for an average of six years before they were removed.

A press release from PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams stated, “Noncitizens have voted in Pennsylvania because Motor Voter registration is broken. For decades, unassuming immigrants were invited to break the law systematically while citizens suffered the consequences of vote dilution. Pennsylvania needs a comprehensive election integrity solution, and Allegheny County clearly demonstrates what is at stake if the problem isn’t fixed.”

So, from Washington to Harrisburg back to Williamsport, Director of the Office of Voter Services Forrest Lehman presented a request at the work session of the County Commissioners on Tuesday, December 10th. Though Director Lehman was only requesting funding for additional scanners for the Clear Ballot system, it opened up the can of voter fraud worms.

With great solemnity, Commissioner Tony Mussare stated that free elections in our country are a sacred right and that he was greatly concerned that there are threats against it. This began the discussion that suddenly became extremely philosophical, with Commissioner Mirabito even reflecting back to the Founding Fathers and speculating about the inherent good and evil of people. The crux of the issue came down to finding the balance between ensuring that barriers to voting are removed to ensure fairness in the voting process, and at the same time protect the voting franchise.

It was not settled during that work session on December 10th, nor should we have expected it to be. Our republic has labored over gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, intimidation, and vote-buying since its inception. The 12th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th amendments to the US Constitution are all related to elections and voting. And of course, do we need to be reminded that voter interference by Russia was the original impetus to the Democratic Party’s House of Representatives investigations into President Trump? Commissioner Mussare has every right to be greatly concerned. We all should be.

Larry Stout welcomes your comments or input. He can be reached by email: lionwebbweekly@gmail.com.