Election Integrity

Khalif Ali, the executive director of the nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause PA, said he’s already preparing for some fraught months as lawmakers hash out their differences.

Here in the commonwealth, we pick our leaders. Our leaders do not pick and choose which voices to listen to and which ones to silence. We have spoken. We’ve elected our next president.

In America, voters pick our leaders -- our leaders do not pick and choose which voices to heed and which to silence. Common Cause Pennsylvania strongly condemns this blatant and undemocratic attempt by partisan operatives to undermine the will of the voters in Pennsylvania.

Today marks less than a week before the June 2 primary election. The Pennsylvania Election Protection Coalition is urging any voter who plans to vote by mail but has not yet sent the ballot back to mail it immediately or drop it off at locations designated by their county instead. Voters who have questions or problems voting, either by mail or in-person, should call the nonpartisan “Election Protection Hotline” where volunteers will be able to answer their questions.

Suzanne Almeida, interim director of the voting accessibility advocacy group Common Cause Pennsylvania, said she supports, “in principle,” the sending of mail-in ballot applications to all eligible voters in the state, but wants to make sure it’s accessible to all voters — including those with visual disabilities who would need to vote on a ballot marking device, for example.

“Rescheduling a primary election is not a decision that is made lightly, but moving this election now prevents us from having to implement last minute changes, which can disenfranchise voters,” a statement from Common Cause said. “We witnessed last week’s confusion in Ohio, when its government cancelled an election at the last minute. We don’t want that in Pennsylvania.”