Judge and Inspector of Elections resign calling Pennsylvania's Election process increasingly un-American

Richard Piotrowski
Ellen Blickman
3731-4 Allen St Allentown, PA 18104
email: rich@richpiotrowski.org
cell: 610 360-8394

News Release

Allentown Judge and Inspector of Elections resign calling Pennsylvania's Election process increasingly un-American

Allentown, PA - The Husband and Wife team that served this past election in Allentown's 17th ward 4 th district (located at the western edge of City of Allentown and serving a portion of the Parkland School District) as it's Judge of Ellection and Inspector of Elections, resigned in protest last week over what they have labeled an increasingly un-American election process.

Richard Piotrowski, who served as Judge of Elections, and who also ran in 2004 for Congress in the 10th district ,said he is extremely troubled over the unfair ballot requirements that were imposed this year on State-wide candidates in the Commonweath. "The final straw for me was the nearly $90,000 legal bill that the court has ordered Carl Romanelli to pay the Democratic Party for knocking him off of the ballot." Piotrowski said. Piotrowski is referring to the State Supreme Court's ruling keeping him off of the ballot, which also legally makes him responsible for the Democrat's legal fees. Piotrowski said this "adding insult to injury" move by the Court and the Democratic Party was a way of scaring off future attempts of challengers to the two-party hold on the political process.

Piotrowski's wife, Ellen Blickman, who served as an Inspector of Election, said she was initially excited to serve the position. 'I thought we could be part of the process, to help improve it." she said. Blickman added that she thought she could help reach out to younger voters and get them involved. "Although voter interest and turnout has been steadily declining over the years, I've never seen a level of disinterest that it's come to now,"she said. Blickman pointed out that these new potential voters have no trust in the system and, as they are much more tech savvy, many of them have read the some of the information that is available online on how the new Diebolt voter machines can be "hacked" and are not secure. Many of the web's most popular sites have featured articles about the Diebold machines and there are dozens of sites dedicated to this single issue..

Piotrowski and Blickman both say they will exercise their right to vote this year, and plan to do several write-in votes for candidates that were denied a place on the ballot. "We'll keep doing that until they take that ability away too," Blickman said.. "The truth is that four states have already taken the ability to do write-in away already." Piotrowski sadly added.