The 2019 municipal primary is May 21. This is a true grassroots election.

Many of the names on the ballot are your neighbors, friends and even relatives.

You, the voters, will decide on the candidates who will move on to the November election to serve as township supervisors and commissioners, borough council members, school board directors, county commissioners and judges. They will serve in office, anywhere from four to 10 years, and make decisions that will directly affect you, your children and your community.

Forget the national nonsense about Russian hacking and interference with America’s elections you may have heard on news broadcasts - voting machines in America are not connected to the Internet. There is no way (at this time) for anyone from a foreign country - or for that matter, an opposing political party - to hack into and change your vote.

The misinformation campaign from those in power on a national level has created a diversion, and the resulting cynicism and mistrust are just the result they want to keep voters away from the polls.

If you “repeat a lie often enough,” often attributed to Nazi Joseph Goebbels, it is an effective propaganda tool.

Let’s pray the day never comes when votes are transmitted via computer from the local polling place to the local board of elections office.

Sure, voting machines, which are digital, have glitches, and boxes of paper votes have been found hidden in warehouses. But this is rare and certainly not a good reason to avoid making your voice heard. Pennsylvania is dealing with the possibility of voting irregularities by making a paper trail mandatory.

Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres told Pennsylvania’s counties they must select, by Dec. 31, voting systems that provide a voter-verifiable paper record and these must be implemented by the April 2020 primary.

Voting is a right for which many in this country have laid down their lives. Exercise that right Tuesday and cast your ballot for the person you believe will best represent your interests.

Deb Palmieri

editor

Parkland Press

Northwestern Press