Greensburg rally: 'Count all the votes,' speakers say

In a sea of some 60 people rallying Wednesday in front of the Westmoreland County Courthouse for counting all mail-in ballots that reach county election bureaus by Friday, Bill Wertz of Greensburg stood out.

At the Voice of Westmorelan rally, a community activist organization, Wertz admitted to the crowd carrying “Count the Vote” signs and similar messages that he changed from supporting President Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden and wanted the mail-in ballot vote count to continue.

“Count every vote, and every vote counts,” Wertz said. “Every Pennsylvanian, every American, voted their morals and their values … and those values and morals, while they may not agree with mine, deserve to have their votes counted just as much as mine does.”

The rally in Greensburg was held as the news spread that the Trump campaign had filed multiple lawsuits in Pennsylvania trying to overturn Friday’s deadline for counting the mail-in ballots and acting to intervene in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the state’s deadline.

With news of Trump trying to prevent voters from having ballots counted, college student Lorenz King, 31, of Greensburg said he was worried about politicians “working overtime to disenfranchise” voters.

Counting all the ballots, King said, “is the American thing to do.”

Responding to a suggestion from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, that it’s normal and appropriate for contested elections to come be litigated, Paula Purnell of Greensburg said that she does not agree litigation over an election was “the American way.”

“You count every vote,” Purnell said. “That’s the American way.”

All ballots Westmoreland County received by 5 p.m. Friday will be counted, Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. All the provisional ballots will be counted as well, said Chew, a Republican.

“(It’s) the basics of our democracy, which is that every vote needs to be counted, no matter if you’re white, black, brown. We all deserved to be heard,” said Clare Dooley, one of the co-founders of Voice of Westmoreland.

Those ballots that reached for courthouse Wednesday and any delivered Thursday or by 5 p.m. Friday, will be counted, but will be segregated because of the potential legal challenges that are looming in Pennsylvania’s election.

“I always say the most patriotic thing you can do is vote and protest,” said Sarah Skidmore of Greensburg, a volunteer organizer for Voice of Westmoreland.