I commend the county commissioners, bureau of elections, etc for conducting a secure election and following up with an election commission to review our process so that future elections would run more efficiently.
Despite all the talk about an audit, there were no election surprises in Butler County in 2020. Donald Trump won the county by the same margin as he did in 2016. So if anyone is going to support an audit, taxpayers should know exactly what problem you’re trying to solve. Because it won’t come cheap.
So far, Fulton County is the only one in PA that did the forensic audit people are calling for in Butler County. They now have to spend more than $1 million to replace their voting equipment, since it was compromised in the audit.
But if you go down this path, the cost is more than money. It’s the integrity of our electoral system.
People who call themselves the Patriot Party are anything but patriotic. Their goal is not to defend Democracy or the Constitution but to show their fealty to the former President who lost the election.
Unfortunately, complicit in this are 2 of Butler County’s Congressman, Mike Kelly and Glenn Thompson who voted to overturn the election and disregard my vote and those of 2.7 million Pennsylvanians. People who call for audits claim it will help restore faith in our electoral system, but it’s they themselves who perpetuate the mistrust in the system. Groups like the Patriot Party will never be content with the results of a valid audit. They will continue until there is a successful insurrection.
Or they will gain power because of the silence of a majority of elected officials and leaders within the Republican Party. Our Democracy will be lost unless many more people have the courage to speak up and put an end to the lie that the election was stolen.
State Sen. Dan Laughlin, a Republican from Erie wrote in an op ed: “The current attempt to discredit the 2020 election results runs headlong into an unmistakable truth. Donald Trump lost Pennsylvania because Donald Trump received fewer votes.”
I hope Butler County officials have the courage to speak this truth.
Submitted by Catherine Lalonde, Butler County Democratic Committee Chair, 8/18/21
