History: Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries
n 2016, OpenPittsburgh.Org managed to obtain enough signatures to place a comprehensive City Charter Amendment on the fall ballot after acquiring a federal injunction that enabled using professional canvassers to collect petition signatures. However, the Mayor's Chief of Staff objected and sought to have the Amendment removed from the ballot. Though the objections were filed well beyond the mandatory challenge period, nonetheless, Judge Joseph James rejected 70 years of case law and allowed the objectio
ith the 2016 election raising public concerns about the cybersecurity of our voting system and the pandemic requiring widespread use of less secure mail-in balloting in 2020, establishing an independent Board of Elections (BOE) in Allegheny County could help bolster the public's wavering confidence in the election process. As it stands now, though, we have elected incumbents in charge of conducting elections, and that constitutes an inherent conflict of interests. Fortunately, it is possible for a home
As a starting point, we can look to Lucerne County which has had an independent BOE for a number of years. With it as a reference, OpenPittsburgh.Org has drafted a proposed amendment to the Allegheny County Home Rule Charter which would establish a better qualified, independent BOE. Unfortunately, since the current pandemic makes it virtually impossible to circulate petitions in 2020 in order to place a referendum for a County Charter amendment on the ballot, that effort has had to be postponed until th
History: Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries