Rights in Peril: Protecting Both the Vote and Voters' Privacy

Pennsylvania Senate Republicans have initiated a sham review of the 2020 general election, and ACLU-PA is challenging the subpoenas issued by a state Senate committee for voters' personally identifying information.

Like other lawmakers in a handful of states, Pennsylvania Senate Republicans have initiated a sham review of the 2020 general election. On a party-line vote, a committee of the state Senate voted to subpoena the personally identifying information of all nine million registered voters in Pennsylvania. The subpoena demands voters' names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.

ACLU-PA has joined a lawsuit challenging the subpoena as co-counsel for eight individuals and three advocacy organizations - Make The Road Pennsylvania, Common Cause PA, and the League of Women Voters of PA. Oral arguments in the case will be held on December 15 before the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg.

In this episode, we hear from Diana Robinson, civic engagement director for Make The Road PA, and Marian Schneider, consulting attorney on elections and voting rights for ACLU-PA. Marian and Diana discuss why the Senate's sham review is an unnecessary distraction from real issues, why it threatens both voting rights and the right to privacy, and how supporters of democracy can support and protect the franchise.

Learn more about this case at aclupa.org/Dush. Learn more about the work of Make The Road PA at maketheroadpa.org, on Facebook, and on Twitter.