Submitted January 18, 2023
November 3, 2020 was a stressful day. On that Election Day, local Democrats had teams roving between key polling locations to evaluate how well Polling Judges were controlling the heavy turnout and how well the mail-in-ballot count was being managed. In spite of all the moving parts that were integral to that historic election, it was clear that Voter Services had successfully handled the load.
With last week’s hand count and rehash of the 2020 election, Voter Services has again proven its ability to manage difficult tasks. We congratulate them and their expanded team of county employees. Let’s not do this anymore.
The continued obstinacy of a small percent of radicalized local residents to accept reality is unfortunate. We now have overwhelming evidence that the 2020 election, in Lycoming County, was fair and accurate. Continuing to claim fraud solely because of the differences in votes for the Democratic candidates between 2016 and 2020 ignores an important part of the story. Lycoming Democrats worked hard to increase the vote for our candidates.
We put up a fight. The Lycoming Women Democrats and the Lycoming County Democratic Committee pushed back against the assumption that all Republicans and right-leaning Independents would vote in lockstep with their party radicals. Lycoming County is home to numerous moderate-thinking people. Many are Republicans or Independents. Biden was an acceptable option over the continued chaos of Trump’s White House.
Some of these crossover voters were women in their 50s and 60s who were concerned about the rights of women or their grandchildren in the LGBTQ+ community. People called our office for information, stopped by to get yard signs, and spoke to us about their motivations to vote for Biden.
It was easy to grasp that we would pick up votes from so many women who would have normally voted their party line. Every competitive election has unique results. Local Democrats made a solid effort to compete because everybody understands that every vote counts.
We have now counted and audited 2020 more than enough. We urge everyone who agrees with this statement to call the Lycoming County Board of Elections, the County Commissioners, and tell them of your support and satisfaction with the public employees who work for them. And now it’s time to move on.
We, the writers of this letter, are all former Chairs of the Lycoming County Democratic Committee and former Presidents of the Lycoming Women Democrats: Verna Caruso, Morgan Allyn, and Linda Sosniak.
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The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed in this letter to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of NorthcentralPa.com.
