Democratic Party of York County

LANCASTER, PA (October 28 2012) — Gov. Tom Corbett has decided to send Pennsylvanians back to 1984 -- novelist George Orwell’s “1984,” that is, a description of a totalitarian society in which Big Brother is always watching.

So far, no word of protest from Sen. Lloyd Smucker and other legislators who vote with the governor almost 100 percent of the time.

Corbett’s version of Big Brother government now includes a website where registered voters can report their allegations of voter fraud and other election improprieties.

The governor hasn’t been able to find any voter fraud since his days as attorney general, but apparently he’s still obsessed with the idea that it exists or is determined to suppress the desire to vote.

“Corbett never stops,” says Tom O’Brien, running for the 13th District state Senate seat in Lancaster and York counties held by Smucker. “All of these attempts to quash nonexistent fraud just waste money and manpower and create an atmosphere of neighbor snooping on neighbor. In this modern-day, tension-filled world, people need to come together and form healthy communities. We don’t need them to retreat into near-isolation because of a fear that their neighbors might come up with some misconception.

“Our legislators, including Senator Smucker, need to convince the governor and Secretary of State Carol Aichele that more harm than good will come from this scheme and to drop the idea immediately. The senator needs to tell the governor, Secretary Aichele and the people of the 13th District that he and the rest of us have had enough of this foolish, wasteful, intrusive crusade. He needs to denounce it in the strongest terms now.

“Each of these online reports supposedly will go to the election board in the county where the person filing the complaint resides. Some of the areas of complaint on the website include unregistered voters, voter intimidation, and failing to offer help to voters who need it. The person complaining apparently does not have to offer any proof. The whole thing just smells like a thinly veiled attempt at intimidating the people the governor does not expect to be on his side.

“This is just another example of how divisive and negative this governor and his legislative supporters are. It has got to stop before our sense of being free completely disappears.”