With just weeks to go until Pennsylvania’s 2023 elections, our Executive Director Jamie Perrapato explained the stakes to Democracy Docket:
“This year’s local races will also determine how Pennsylvania runs its 2024 presidential elections.
Counties, not the state, run elections — and the county boards of elections that certify results are on the ballot this year for the first time since the 2020 presidential race.”
At Turn PA Blue, we’re working to support county candidates and protect our elections from conspiracy theorists, MAGA diehards, and – in some cases – sheer incompetence.
LancasterOnline reports that in MAGA controlled Lancaster County, election officials sent out bad instructions for returning mail ballots this year. Again.
This time they failed to make clear that ballots had to go inside a yellow “secrecy envelope” before being placed in another outer white envelope. They told voters to put it in a “white” envelope which is wrong and could result in mail in votes being thrown out!
Worse yet, it’s their fourth mail-ballot related mistake in three years!
Lancaster County Commission candidate Alice Yoder, who will work to fix this mess and hold the GOP accountable, is one of 9 countywide candidates we’re supporting today on our PA County Row Officers slate.
These include county commissioners that control swing-state election administration, and other county row offices that help build our Democratic bench and run the administration of our counties.
Help us protect voting by mail. Sign up to phone bank with our sister organization, Promote the Vote PA, as we call mail-in voters to return their ballots!
Build our bench
Barack Obama won Luzerne County, PA twice – yet Republicans hold a staggering 10-1 majority on the Luzerne County Council.
Local elections matter. For example SpotlightPA reports:
In 2022 when Luzerne County’s Democratic-majority Board of Elections was planning to use drop boxes in the midterm elections, members of the Republican-majority county council tried to bar county employees or resources from being used to deploy drop boxes.
That’s why Brittany Stephenson, the first black woman to ever run for Luzerne County Council, is one of the local candidates we’re highlighting today ahead of the November 7 PA elections.
At Turn PA Blue, we don’t just focus on big-name offices – we know that to win long-term, we have to build the bench.
Politico says this November’s elections in Bucks County, PA, “one of the swingiest counties in one of the swingiest states in America,” will preview what happens in 2024.
