Letter to the Editor: Why is Pennsylvania refusing to provide its election data?

Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Al Schmidt refuses to give its voter export to the Department of Justice, which wants to validate that only citizens are voting, by cross-checking social security numbers. Why is he refusing? That’s a question that Rep. Brad Roae asked Schmidt during the budget hearings. Schmidt gave a nonsensical reply, stating DOS wants to “protect” personal information. Roae aptly responded “With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, the federal government already has everybody’s social security numbers – they’re the ones that give them out.” It was classic!

Some states are using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify citizenship status for voter registration.

Last year, Texas removed 6,500 noncitizens from its’ voter rolls. Texas also found 454,289 registered voters “who have never had their citizenship verified.” (That discovery was made during the Biden presidency though; and they wouldn’t supply Texas information to verify their findings.) Louisiana uncovered 403 noncitizens registered to vote in Louisiana, with 83 having voted in at least one election since the 1980s.

Earlier this month, illegal immigrant Mahady Sacko, 50, of Philadelphia, voted in every election since 2008. The FBI charged him for “falsely represent(ing) that he was a US citizen in order to vote and register to vote” in the last presidential election.

How many others? Truly, it’s not a question of how many. Scope doesn’t matter. It’s the principle. Every non-citizen that votes steals, dilutes, erases an American’s vote. And, that’s criminal. Stop protecting these criminals, Mr. Schmidt. That makes you one! 

Caroline Machiraju

Camp Hill, PA