Coalition Letter to Fitzgerald on Ballot Access

May 10, 2020 

Hon. Rich Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Allegheny County 101 County Court House 436 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 

Dear County Executive Fitzgerald: 

We’re writing to you as a coalition of African American organizations who have come together to address concerns about the threat to ballot access posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We all agree with the wisdom of postponing the April 28, 2020 primary election to June 2, 2020. We strongly agree with the promotion of vote by mail. Both of these measures will no doubt keep thousands of voters safe. We have grave concerns, however, that if certain concrete steps are not taken, thousands of voters will be disenfranchised on June 2, 2020 due to lack of sufficient information and education. 

We understand the tremendous strain that county government is under at this difficult time and that there are many issues and concerns that must be dealt with. We thank you for your service at this time. We accept that sacrifices must be made to safely get through this crisis. We cannot accept that the sacred right of every citizen to make their voice heard through their vote, should be one of those sacrifices. We know that over 150,000 Allegheny County voters have either applied for, and/or received their ballots. We are sure that you would agree that these voters are not only motivated to vote, but many also have access to computers and Wi-Fi. Many of our voters are not as aware, and many cannot afford computers, let alone Wi-Fi in their homes. We must ensure that they are not left behind. 

Abraham Lincoln once said that “elections belong to the People” and more recently, Barack Obama declared “There is no such thing as a vote that does not matter.” In view of the importance of the vote in history, and for the future of our region and the nation, we are calling on you to take immediate steps to ensure that every Allegheny County citizen, who wishes to vote, will be able to do so safely. 

We are calling upon the Allegheny County government to create and initiate, as quickly as possible, an aggressive public education campaign to inform County residents of the following: 

1) The extreme lack of polling places that will be open to voters on June 2, 2020 Primary Election Day. 

2) The option to vote by mail that is available to them. 

3) The proper procedures and timelines for receiving, filling out, and returning their application. 

4) The proper procedures and timelines for receiving, casting, and returning their ballot. 

We believe that an aggressive public outreach effort that relies primarily on social media will exclude many voters who either do not engage with social media, or who lack access to it altogether. Therefore, we are requesting that you join us in reaching out to local television and radio news outlets to strongly encourage them to dedicate not only normal Public Service Announcement minutes to this 

effort, but to also donate significant airtime to inform our citizens of the actions they must take to vote in the June 2, 2020 Primary. 

We thank you in advance for you work to ensure ballot access for all interested citizens. We stand ready to do our share of the work to make that a reality. We are here to assist you in this effort in any way, at any time.