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Hi, and welcome:
My name is Julius Litman. I am honored to serve as Chair of the Pike County
Democratic Committee (PCDC). Welcome to our website.
We had four goals for the PCDC through Election Day, November 4.
1. First
and foremost, elect Barack Obama President of the United States.
2. Second
and of equal importance, elect all other Democrats on the November 4 ballot, including Chris Carney and John Siptroth.
3. Get
Out the Vote - Ensure that we get ALL voters likely to vote Democratic in November to vote.
4. Protect
the Vote - Ensure that ALL voters entitled to vote are able, and helped where necessary, to do so, and that their votes are
counted.
We did exceptionally well on the first two goals. We did less well on the
fourth goal of protecting the vote and fared abysmally on our third goal of getting the vote out.
Vote Protection
The PCDC intervened on several occasions to ensure that people entitled to
vote actually got to do so. More crucially though, it is not clear how
effective we were in ensuring that the voting machines used on November 4 were properly tested and prepared. Our initial in-person
observation of that process suggested serious problems. As a consequence of bringing
these to the attention of Commissioner Karl Wagner, 11th hour efforts were undertaken to re-test and ensure the
accuracy of all 70 machines used. However, we don’t know how successful
or comprehensive those last minute efforts actually were; especially when you consider that two of the six machines at the
Dingman Township Municipal Garage Polling Place failed
to start at the beginning of the day.
Increased vigilance is required as we develop more experience with the electronic
voting machines now at the heart of our democracy.
Get Out the Vote
The PCDC’s Get Out the Vote effort was hobbled by the unnecessary, completely
avoidable excessively long lines at the Lehman, Dingman, and Blooming Grove polling places due to the inadequate number and
poor training of the paid polling place workers. Despite our efforts before November 4 to alert election officials to the
problems observed during the April 22 Primary election, Pike County
remained woefully unprepared to accommodate the voters wishing to exercise the most fundamental right of U.S. citizenship – the right to vote.
Voters, seeing these long lines, and particularly later in the day, simply
turned away, not able to wait to cast their vote. The lines undoubtedly resulted in voter suppression.
An irrefutable measure of voter suppression is the fact that Pike County, with a turnout of 52.9% or some 24,200 voters,
finished DEAD LAST in voter turnout of all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. The average across all 67 counties was 66.8%.
The PCDC will, yet again, impress upon Pike County officials the enormity
and embarrassment of this shortcoming and will spare no effort to have remedied the problems experienced at the various polling
places in Pike County.
Here’s what you can do to help.
Celebrate with Us
Our Victory Party celebrating Barack Obama’s election and the re-elections
of Congressman Chris Carney and Legislator John Siptroth is on December 4 starting 6 p.m. at the Laurel Ridge Restaurant on
Rte 739.
On January 17, 2009, we will celebrate Barack Obama’s Inauguration as
the 44th President of the United States
This party too is at the Laurel Ridge Restaurant on Rte 739 and again starts at 6 p.m.
Join the PCDC
In addition to membership opportunities provided at this website, we are organizing
a Young Democrats Club. We will organize events as well to attract other interest groups such as: women, African Americans,
LGBT, business leaders, veterans, and well… even disillusioned/recovering Republicans. Contact us. See the link at the
top left of this page.
Run for Office
If we are to take Pike
County from the Republicans we need to field and support a robust field
of committed Democratic candidates. We intend to support all and each of the Democratic candidates running for office. You
can be part of this.
In closing let me state the obvious: Democrats are on the way back. Evidence
of this includes:
· The defeat of McCain/Palin.
· The defeat of Republicans
at all levels of government: State, Local, and Federal.
· Shrinking numbers of Republican
voters.
The Republican defeat is a result of failed Republican policies which are
repugnant to the majority of Americans, including: their blunders in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and the Bush administration’s mishandling of
the unfolding economic recession.
What is irrefutable is that the Republican Party has overplayed its devotion
to the misguided doctrines of Conservatism.
Given the robust population growth forecast for Pike
County, we must all now step up, organize ourselves, and put control of Pike County into time-tested
Democratic hands, where it belongs. So visit us often and please let us know who you are.
Julius | 
