HARRISBURG – Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. today announced our Party’s lawsuit against the Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and their subsidiaries. Chairman Gleason was joined at a press conference by former Supreme Court Justice and PAGOP Fair Elections Task Force Chair Sandra Newman, Vice-Chair Joyce Haas and other concerned Pennsylvanians as they expressed their concerns that our Commonwealth may not be able to have an open, honest and fair election this November 4th.
“With the election being only a couple of weeks away and with more and more incidents of voter fraud coming to light, we don’t believe that we can trust the results of this election,” Gleason said. “Today, our Party is announcing that in an effort to protect the sanctity of our electoral process, we have filed a complaint against the Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes, ACORN and its subsidiaries.”
“ACORN’s fraudulent activities threaten to dilute the votes of millions of Pennsylvania voters by allowing unqualified individuals to cast ballots and again undermine the voters’ confidence in the electoral process in the upcoming election,” Justice Newman added. “The Republican Party of Pennsylvania is seeking to obtain relief necessary to ensure that the 2008 General Election is fair, open and honest manner in order to preserve the ability of qualified Pennsylvanians to cast votes.”
Another plaintiff listed on the complaint was Craig Williams, who is a candidate in the 7th Congressional district and a former Federal prosecutor. Williams released the following statement in support of the lawsuit, "Voter fraud is a crime against democracy and violates a critical tenet of our system of government: one person, one vote," said Williams.
Williams continued, "Fraudulent voter registration is the groundwork for stealing an election from honest, law-abiding citizens. We need to send a clear message that Chicago-style politics of ‘vote early and vote often’ will not be tolerated in Delaware County or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As many of us have fought in combat to protect the sacred rights guaranteed to citizens in our Constitution, we will now fight to protect the fundamental American right to a fully counted vote. It is time to shut down fraud artists like ACORN and seek prosecution of all criminal activity associated with their fraudulent voter registrations."
The lawsuit was filed today in Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court. The plaintiffs, which includes the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, are seeking an order directing the Secretary of the Commonwealth to ensure that the Statewide Uniform Registry of Elector
(SURE) system provides, in a timely and efficient manner all Election Officials data about registrants ineligible to vote, as required by state and federal law. The complaint also demands that the Secretary of the Commonwealth ensure that all Election Officials require identification from all first-time registrants and also demands that the Secretarys that the Secretary provide a significantly larger amount of provisional ballots at each polling place so that voters whose voter registration has not been timely processed by Election Officials on or before the day of the 2008 General Election can vote provisionally.
In addition, the plaintiffs seek an order blocking ACORN and its subsidiaries from all attempts to encourage voters who have submitted false or duplicate registration forms from voting or attempting to vote in the 2008 General Election, directs the ACORN Defendants to provide to the Plaintiffs, the Secretary and the Election Officials copies of any and all lists identifying the names of individuals for whom the ACORN Defendants submitted voter registration forms, and directs the ACORN Defendants to fund public service announcements to educate all first time voters about the requirements to present identification in accordance with state and federal law, whether voting in person or via absentee ballot. Furthermore, the suits asks that ACORN be made to comply with similar mandates and requirements that were set forth in the King County Settlement and Compliance, in which ACORN agreed to extensive oversight by the state of Washington and King County with respect to voter registration activities and voter registration applications that are deemed to be potentially fraudulent and thus ‘suspect.’
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