[EL] Key Pa. Supreme Court ruling

[John McCarthy]

+1

On 9/18/2020 9:12 AM, Stephanie Singer wrote:
> A hoot? Maybe if you’ve never thought about the good people there 
> struggling with a 25% poverty rate who can’t get fair representation 
> -- like the super-talented scientific genius kid I knew who had to 
> fight with her mom f the honor of going hungry so the other one could 
> eat.
>
> Philadelphia elections are a tragedy.
>
>
>> On Sep 18, 2020, at 6:31 AM, John Tanner <john.k.tanner at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:john.k.tanner at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks.    Philadelphia elections are a hoot
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Sep 17, 2020, at 9:24 PM, Stephanie Singer 
>>> <sfsinger at campaignscientific.com 
>>> <mailto:sfsinger at campaignscientific.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>  In Philadelphia, in 1978, US Attorney Peter Vaira alleged that 
>>> Marge Tartaglione, who ran Philadelphia elections until early 2012, 
>>> sent broken voting machines to African American precincts in an 
>>> attempt to help Frank Rizzo.
>>>
>>> There may be other incidents, and other locations, but that’s the 
>>> one I know was documented.
>>>
>>>     The Associated Press reported, “A U.S. attorney said...that a
>>>     federal grand jury is investigating possible violations of the
>>>     Civil Rights Act in connection with voting machine breakdowns
>>>     that affected about 20,000 voters on Election Day. ‘There
>>>     appeared to be a selective breakdown of machines, based on the
>>>     allegations,’ U.S. Attorney Peter Vaira said. ‘Most of the
>>>     breakdowns were in the black wards.’ Many blacks registered for
>>>     the election, spurred on by Mayor Frank Rizzo’s no-holds-barred
>>>     campaign to change the city charter so he could seek a third
>>>     term. The amendment was defeated by a 2-to-1 margin. Vaira said
>>>     the investigation involves the Civil Rights Act, particularly in
>>>     regard to disenfranchisement of voters and violations of the
>>>     one-man-one-vote rule. City election officials said that between
>>>     200 and 400 voting machines broke down. [...] Kane, election
>>>     commission chairman Margaret Tartaglione and Thomas Mattia,
>>>     supervisor of voting machine repairs, appeared before the grand
>>>     jury under subpoena. They were asked to bring lists of all
>>>     election judges, voting machine mechanics and other documents
>>>     relating to the system.” [Associated Press, 11/8/78]
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Sep 17, 2020, at 2:58 PM, John Tanner <john.k.tanner at gmail.com 
>>>> <mailto:john.k.tanner at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Which are the towns with a documented history of selective 
>>>> deployment of broken voting machines?   And what sorts of precincts 
>>>> are selected for the broken machines?
>>>> I sense a violation.
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>>> On Sep 17, 2020, at 5:30 PM, Stephanie Singer 
>>>>> <sfsinger at campaignscientific.com 
>>>>> <mailto:sfsinger at campaignscientific.com>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> 
>>>>> Stephanie Singer <https://www.pdx.edu/profile/stephanie-singer>
>>>>> Research Assistant Professor, Portland State University
>>>>> Former Chair, Philadelphia County Board of Elections
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sep 17, 2020, at 1:17 PM, Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu 
>>>>>> <mailto:rick.pildes at nyu.edu>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From a policy (not a legal) perspective, I have always been 
>>>>>> particularly concerned this election about late-counted ballots 
>>>>>> (maybe the issue won’t matter in the end, because few 
>>>>>> Pennsylvania voters will mail ballots back at the last minute).
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for this interesting post.
>>>>>
>>>>> The importance of ballots being counted goes beyond who wins any 
>>>>> particular contest. Rejected ballots will affect individuals' (or 
>>>>> a zip code’s) voter history on the voter file, which will affect 
>>>>> the amount of attention they get from future political campaigns. 
>>>>> Given the danger of selective removal of sorting machines, or even 
>>>>> the appearance of selective removal of sorting machines in a town 
>>>>> with a documented history of selective deployment of broken voting 
>>>>> machines, the handling of last minute ballots may be significant.
>>>>>
>>>>> And these concerns are exacerbated by the delay in mailing out 
>>>>> ballots in the first place, due to the court challenge.
>>>>>
>>>>> In 2021 and 2022, there will be many contests (for poll worker 
>>>>> positions and party committee positions) that have often been 
>>>>> decided in the past by a single vote or a coin flip.
>>>>>
>>>>> —Stephanie
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>
>
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