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Shapiro, Lamb talk up safety, security of voting by mail

2 min read
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In the face of what they characterize as misinformation coming from President Donald Trump, both Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Mount Lebanon) expressed their support for the commonwealth’s system of mail-in voting in a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning.

“We’ve always had confidence in the election,” Shapiro said. This is the first year Pennsylvania is offering mail-in ballots to registered voters who request them, and they have been widely requested by individuals reluctant to venture out to polling places due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the June primary, 1.5 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail, and there have been more that 2 million requests for the general election.

Trump and some of his allies have argued that mail-in voting is rife with fraud or could be a breeding ground for mischief. There is no evidence that mail-in voting has been a source of widespread fraud, and Shapiro said that “we need to drown out the president’s rhetoric and the doubts he is trying to sow about the election.”

Shapiro and Lamb were speaking at the invitation of two groups: Let America Vote, a nonprofit advocacy group that seeks to uphold voting rights founded by Jason Kander, the former secretary of state of Missouri, in 2017; and VoteVets, a political action committee dedicated to veterans’ issues.

Lamb pointed out that the U.S. Postal Service is one of the largest employers of veterans.

“Don’t let any politician undermine your faith in that institution,” Lamb said. “We’re in the middle of a global pandemic that is already getting worse. … We need to give people options.”

Lamb, whose district stretches from the South Hills to Beaver County, also said that he has already voted by mail and received a notification from the Allegheny County elections office that his ballot has been received.

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