The saga surrounding the staff of Franklin & Marshall College and the Lancaster County Elections Office has taken a different turn.
Laura Medvicco-chairman “F&M Voices,” a nonpartisan coalition of Franklin & Marshall College students, faculty and professional staff committed to voter registration, education and incentive efforts, spoke with PoliticsPA about its interactions with Lisa Darth, Deputy Chief Clerk/Recorder of Lancaster Countyon Friday afternoon.
Medvic claims Dart misleads F&M about the correct process out-of-state student registration to vote in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“Yesterday (Friday) was the deadline for on-campus voter registration,” Medvic said. “I took the forms (to the elections office) and it’s a very busy time… they’re doing all sorts of things. I handed (Dart) my forms and she looked at them and said, “You know, we have forms here that until we see proof that students have canceled their registration elsewhere, we can’t do anything with them.”
When Medvic challenged Dart on Pennsylvania’s election code, the deputy chief clerk “insisted that students could not be registered in two places.” Medvic insisted that with her 20 years of experience at F&M Votes, “there was never any doubt about that. “Nowhere on the Secretary of State’s website does it indicate that proof of cancellation of registration must be provided.”
Dart responded by stating that students or any registered voter cannot be registered in two places.
After an exchange between the two women, Medvic informed Dart that she would inform the university’s general counsel, who would contact the Office of Elections. Medvic left the student registrations with Dart, which accepted them. She also noted that the college has “students whose voter registration is still not lively when we checked them on the AP voter registration website.”
“My goal in all of this is just to make sure that when adults come of age, they can vote, they can have access, they can register and they can vote, regardless of party, regardless of where they come from,” Medvic said. “Voting is essential to our democracy and that’s what F&M Votes is all about. And one of the reasons I got involved.”
Pennsylvania law
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State website“If you moved from outside PA to attend college in PA, you may register to vote in Pennsylvania if you meet the requirements listed above.”
These include:
- Be a citizen of the United States for at least one month before the next primary, special, local or general election.
- Be a resident of Pennsylvania and the election district in which you wish to register and vote at least 30 days before the next primary, special, municipal or general election.
- Be at least 18 years of age on or before the date of the next primary, special, municipal or general election.
They are required from everyone who intends to vote in the Republic of Poland.
It does not provide that a person wishing to register to vote in this state is required to cancel his or her previous registration.
They are required from everyone who intends to vote in the Republic of Poland.
Resident students at Franklin & Marshall and nearly all colleges and universities in the state have been on campus since late August or early September, exceeding the 30-day requirement.
Ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States
The United States Supreme Court ruled in January 1979 that the denial of residence rights to students was unconstitutional In Symm vs. the United States thing.
The Supreme Court’s ruling consisted of only four words – “The judgment is upheld.”
The United States adopted the 26th Amendment in 1971; states that “the right to vote of any citizen of the United States eighteen years of age or older shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.”
Although the courts heard some cases involving this amendment, few of them reached the Supreme Court, meaning the Court never issued a ruling clarifying the meaning of the 26th Amendment.
Section 1
The United States or any state shall not deny or abridge the rights of United States citizens eighteen years of age or older on account of age.
Section 2
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Can a party – Democratic or Republican – question the meaning of the 26th Amendment after the presidential election results are determined? What would it mean that the current U.S. Supreme Court favors conservatives by a 6-3 margin?
County response
In a statement sent to PoliticsPA, the minority commissioner on the three-member Lancaster County Board of Commissioners wrote that the dispute between the nonpartisan organization F&M Votes and the county elections office was misinterpreted.
Lancaster County Commissioner Alice Yoder told PoliticsPA that “The Lancaster County Elections Office has accepted the voter registration applications you are inquiring about. No voter registration was denied.”
Yoder continued: “The person who spoke with the County Elections Office stated that they were instructing students that they can knowingly register to vote in multiple states. Unfortunately, telling students that they can knowingly and intentionally register to vote in multiple states is incorrect and does not constitute a valid procedure for changing voter registration.”
Medvic replied: “I don’t know what happens when I hand it over. The only thing I can do is go ahead and check the AP voter registration status on the website because we scan our forms before we take them (to the elections office).”
The problem is not only for students
On Saturday, a third member of the college community came forward to say that when they went to register to vote in person at the North Queen Street office in Lancaster, they were told they would have to cancel their previous out-of-state visit. registration before obtaining a license to register in Lancaster County.
Matte shoesalso co-chairman of F&M Votes, said this brings the total to three people associated with Franklin & Marshall who were mistakenly provided with similar information – a student, an employee and a representative of the nonpartisan student organization.
The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement reminding the Lancaster office that “it is not absolutely necessary for a voter to have a Pennsylvania driver’s license to register to vote.” Many voters in Pennsylvania do not have one, so providing the last four digits of your Social Security number is acceptable proof of identification at the voter registration stage. Advising voters that they must have a Pennsylvania driver’s license violates both federal and state law.”
