May. 10, 2022
HARRISBURG – Following a recent investigative report in the Philadelphia Inquirer that found dozens of mail-in ballots had been sent to a single P.O. box in a Philadelphia post office, in most cases without the voter’s knowledge, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), chairman of the House State Government Committee, issued the following statement:
“This is nothing more than ballot harvesting and was done, in nearly all cases, without the knowledge of the voters whose names are on the ballots. According to the article, 39 ballots had been requested to be sent to the P.O. box and numerous ballots have already been delivered. If it hadn’t been for the reporters’ hard work and due diligence, who knows how many more ballots would have been erroneously sent to the P.O. box.
“Having ballots mailed out without the knowledge of the voter is a direct result of failed internal controls. This is directly due to a county failing to validate a mail-in-ballot application prior to sending out a ballot. This practice needs to stop immediately.
“If Gov. Tom Wolf had not vetoed the Voting Rights Protection Act without reading it, this alleged ballot harvesting scheme would not have happened.
House Bill 1300 would have required elections officials to validate both voter registration applications and mail-in voting applications. It also would have required the return of signature verification. Had these internal controls been in place, no ballots would have been mailed out in the first place. Polling repeatedly shows Pennsylvanians do not have faith in our election systems. I believe this is partially due to the lack of internal controls, which are jeopardizing our election integrity.”
To read the article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, click here.
Representative Seth Grove
196th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Greg Gross
717.260.6374
ggross@pahousegop.com
RepGrove.com /
Facebook.com/RepSethGrove