Democratic Pennsylvania Official Sued Over Ballot Drop Boxes 

While conservatives have been pushing for more secure elections for years, the circumstances surrounding the 2020 presidential race presented new concerns. 

In addition to the activism of some election officials who vocally opposed then-President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, the COVID-19 pandemic served as an excuse to provide new, and largely untested, voting options.

Both of those issues converged in a new lawsuit against Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, a Democrat elected in November to oversee the Pennsylvania county’s election.

According to court documents, she is accused of violating the state law by expanding a pandemic-era program to provide drop boxes for absentee ballots.

Although the program had been curtailed by her predecessor, Innamorato reportedly selected five locations across the county where ballots could be deposited in upcoming elections. 

Republican elections board member Sam DeMarco denounced the move, which he said came “without consultation of her fellow Board of Elections Members or input from the public” and “only further validates voters’ concerns about her inexperience and judgment which led to the narrowest County Executive election in 24 years.”

Innamorato has also worn her leftist ideology on her sleeve, which has opened her up to even more criticism.

I will fight to get Trump out of office.

Nonetheless, I refuse to acquiesce to an agenda that doesn't address the persistent pain faced by many in America. We must keep pushing the Dems to center the needs of the working class to create a place where we can all thrive. #DNC2020

— Sara Innamorato (@Innamo) August 17, 2020

In 2018, two years before she publicly vowed to “fight to get Trump out of office,” she appeared on a podcast and disparaged the White voters she would later ask to support her candidacy.

“I just look at my district, right?” she said. “And it’s 93% White. My district, which I know is like White working class, poor folk, who are racist, because it’s so much easier for them to look to their side and say, ‘I’m going to blame that person.’”

An advocacy group called Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections is backing the lawsuit against Innamorato, which was initially filed by DeMarco and a handful of county voters.

“County Executive Innamorato cannot ignore her legal obligations to consult with other members of the county board of elections and the public no matter how eager she may be to impose her will on the citizens of Allegheny County,” explained RITE President Derek Lyons. “The County Executive may not care what her fellow citizens have to say about ballot drop boxes, but she is required by law to at least hear them out.”