Roae Calls on Department of State to Remove Fake Election Results with Candidates’ Names

HARRISBURG - Rep. Brad Roae (R-Crawford/Erie) today sent an email to Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) Secretary Al Schmidt calling on his department to remove fake election results from the DOS website that includes candidates' names on the April 23 primary ballot.

"For the office of attorney general, you show Eugene DePasquale winning a crowded five-candidate field," Roae said. "This could be interpreted as some type of endorsement to help or hurt certain candidates. This is done with other races too. Showing real candidates could lead to people thinking that votes are already being tallied when mail-in ballots cannot legally be opened yet, and counties cannot legally submit their primary election results yet. Instead, if the department wants to display what election results will look like, fictious names could be used."

In addition, Roae asked Schmidt to again display the number of precincts counted on election night, as was done years ago. He brought this issue up before in a House State Government Committee hearing last month with Schmidt.

"Up until a few years ago, the website would show numbers like 4,999 out of 5,000 precincts reporting or 1,000 out of 5,000 precincts reported," Roae said. "This would allow the public to see if the outcome is likely to change from the candidate in the lead."

The 6th Legislative District includes the city of Meadville; Beaver, Conneaut, East Fairfield, East Fallowfield, East Mead, Fairfield, Greenwood, Hayfield, North Shenango, Pine, Randolph, Sadsbury, South Shenango, Spring, Summerhill, Summit, Union, Vernon, Wayne, West Fallowfield, West Mead and West Shenango townships; and Cochranton, Conneaut Lake, Conneautville, Linesville and Springboro boroughs in Crawford County and Conneaut, Elk Creek and Springfield townships and Albion and Cranesville boroughs in Erie County.

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