Report: Wolf Administration Picked Winners and Losers for Private Grants to Fund Public Election

October 21, 2021

HARRISBURG – The Wolf administration guided private funding for elections to Democratic-leaning counties, according to a report from Broad + Liberty. This selective process disenfranchised thousands of voters across the Commonwealth, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), chairman of the House State Government Committee, said.

The publication reported:

“Emails from the Office of the Pennsylvania Governor and the Pennsylvania Department of State show that former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and an official in Gov. Tom Wolf’s office knew about private 2020 election grants and invited Democratic-leaning counties to apply, appearing to aid the selective process at a time when other counties were unaware.

“No email shows any official in either office providing similar information or assistance to any of the commonwealth’s Republican-leaning counties.”

The article can be read in full HERE. 

In response, Grove said:

“During one of the 10 hearings on Pennsylvania’s election, the committee uncovered that nearly $21 million in private grants were awarded to counites to fund public elections. About half of the money was directed to Philadelphia, which equaled to about $10 per voter, while most other counties received less than $1 per voter.

“This latest report indicates the administration and the Department of State played favorites when they connected certain counties to large sums of grant funding while ignoring other counties. Not only did this create unequal access to voters, but it also essentially disenfranchised voters in counties that did not receive equal funding.”

The Voting Rights Protection Act (House Bill 1800) would prevent this disparate funding by requiring all grants go to the Department of State to then be evenly distribute funds to counties. 



Representative Seth Grove
196th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Greg Gross
717.260.6374
ggross@pahousegop.com
RepGrove.com / Facebook.com/RepSethGrove