Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The chairperson of the Bucks County Commissioners threw their support behind a legal challenge filed by the state attorney general.
Commissioners’ Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, filed an affidavit Wednesday in support of Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s lawsuit to challenge a GOP effort to obtain voter information, including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers for up to 9 million people.
Advertisements
Under the discussed plan, Republican state lawmakers looking into the 2020 election would turn the personal information of Pennsylvanians to a third-party vendor. The name of the organization that would get the sensitive information has not been announced.
The state makes voter information available to the public and political groups for purchase, but that data does not include drivers’ license or partial social security numbers.
“Recent actions by the Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee to stoke division, distrust and disinformation threaten to jeopardize the trust we have worked so hard to build and preserve,” Marseglia wrote in her affidavit.
Advertisements
Marseglia called the subpoena request for personal information “a cynical political stunt.” She instead called on state lawmakers to work on election reforms that have bipartisan support among county commissioners across the state, like allowing for per-canvassing of ballots.
The longtime commissioner said Bucks County officials have received 300 comments from voters over the past month about the request for sensitive personal information.
Advertisements
Shapiro has said the GOP request for personal information “goes too far”
“By trying to pry into everyone’s drivers license numbers and social security numbers they have gone too far,” he said. “Today we say enough is enough. What they are doing is against the law and we intend to win.”
Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chair Dr. Val Arkoosh, a Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate, also filed an affidavit. Montgomery County Commissioner Kenneth Lawrence Jr., chair of that county’s board of elections, additionally submitted an affidavit.
Advertisements
Report a correction via email | Editorial standards and policies
