Washington, D.C. – Today, voters and election poll workers supported by Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (“RITE”) sued Philadelphia’s Commissioners who are threatening to discontinue critical, commonsense, and legally required election integrity measures that safeguard against duplicate voting. According to a recent report, the justification for this shocking conduct is officials’ unjustified belief that identifying and eliminating duplicate votes somehow jeopardizes their ability to access state election administration funds. The Commissioners, who were recently caught deceiving the public regarding the distribution of absentee/mail-in ballots, have ignored RITE’s repeated attempts to correct this misunderstanding of the law, threatening to conduct the 2022 election without these crucial security measures in place.
Plaintiffs’ lawsuit asks the court to declare that the Commissioners are required to conduct a basic audit of the ballots at the conclusion of the election. This audit, known as Poll Book Reconciliation, matches up absentee/mail-in ballots received against in-person votes, to protect against a person voting by both mail and in person. This simple process identified 40 such duplicate votes during the 2020 election in Philadelphia, and it is becoming increasingly important as absentee/mail-in voting grows more popular in the city and throughout the state. The lawsuit also challenges Philadelphia’s inadequate training and checks at the polling place on Election Day which, if done properly, would further reduce duplicate voting opportunities.
Derek Lyons, RITE’s President and CEO, issued the following statement:
“As reports of election abuses in Philadelphia continue to come to light, Pennsylvania voters deserve to know that local election officials are doing all that they are required to do to prevent and eliminate duplicate voting. Just weeks before the election, however, officials appear determined to weaken crucial election integrity measures without any justification. Duplicate voting is antithetical to election integrity. RITE is proud to support Pennsylvania voters fighting against this flawed, dangerous, and illegal plan that would undermine the public’s trust and confidence in their elections.”
Co-founded in 2022 by National Finance Chairman Steve Wynn, Senior Advisor Karl Rove, and Chairman of the Board Bobby R. Burchfield, RITE is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rule of law in elections. Working with some of the finest lawyers in the country, RITE supports faithful enforcement of valid, properly enacted and adopted laws and regulations that promote secure, efficient, and accurate elections throughout the United States.
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