Pennsylvania-based Broad and Liberty has published an opinion-editorial by Linda A. Kerns, counsel to Mr. Eugene Kopecki in Kopecki v. Lackawanna County, describing the sheer impact of Lackawanna County’s infringement on his constitutional rights. Center for Election Confidence (CEC) supports Mr. Kopecki’s federal lawsuit in an effort to prevent future disenfranchisement in Lackawanna County.
As Kerns notes, Lackawanna County’s shocking failure to have any “quality control protocols in place to proofread the documents before going to print or to check the printed materials once they were completed” and disregard for Mr. Kopecki’s right to vote by rejecting any “attempt at large-scale public communication or effort to confirm all affected voters received a proper ballot” meant Mr. Kopecki never had any real opportunity to cast his ballot.
Eugene Kopecki[ is] a Korean War veteran who considered it his right, his privilege, and his duty as an American citizen to vote in every election, even when family health concerns prevented him from casting his ballot in person.
Kerns further explains that each of the issues that led to Lackawanna County disenfranchising Mr. Kopecki were a “series of completely avoidable catastrophes”—but Lackawanna County didn’t seem to care, completing only “the bare minimum” and offering a “pinky promise” to voters that the issue would be resolved. For Mr. Kopecki, the nightmare never ended, and no corrected ballot ever arrived.
[Kopecki] had a sterling voting record, too. Until May 2025, that is, when the Lackawanna Department of Elections failed so miserably with absentee and mail-in ballots that Mr. Kopecki was prevented from casting his ballot for the first time – including during his time serving in the military overseas.
Kerns concludes by remarking on the abysmal state of election administration in the Commonwealth: “Apparently, Pennsylvania election officials have not suffered enough embarrassment or felt compelled to take appropriate corrective measures following various election disgraces in recent years.”