Laurel Highlands Today

Melissa George is so concerned about the security of U.S. elections that she took a bus from Pennsylvania to attend the March for Trump rally last weekend.

“I have a friend who didn't get to vote because when he showed up at the polling location, they said he’d already voted,” George told Laurel Highlands Today. “I wonder if everybody got one ballot, whether the voter rolls are up to date and I worry about the mass mail-out and mail-in of ballots.”

George, a Somerset County resident, was among thousands of Trump supporters marching from Freedom Plaza to the U.S. Supreme Court building across from the Capitol on Nov. 14, protesting Election Day results. Biden was named president-elect after winning 306 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 232, although the deadline for presidential electors from every state to cast their votes is Dec. 14, according to media reports.

“We had a third party mail 29,000 ballots out in the Pittsburgh area," George claimed in an interview at the rally. "It was a contractor. This was not the election board or the government of Pittsburgh. They were owned by a company that did business with county officials but they did not have a contract with that subcontractor. Shouldn't that have been put out to bid?”

Trib Live reports that Ohio-based ballot vendor Midwest Direct sent incorrect ballots to about 29,000 Allegheny County residents. The issue was caused by a printing error and corrected ballots were later sent. The 29,000 ballots could not be opened until Nov. 5 per a federal court order. 

Pennsylvania state officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about George's allegations, but Allegheny County spokesperson Amie Downs told WPXI Channel 11 of the county's transparency.

"The county’s elections process has been transparent and open," Downs said. "This includes all of our processes from pre-canvassing, to canvassing to the operations of the Return Board."

The Associated Press reported that incumbent Biden won Pennsylvania’s electoral votes with 49.9% of state votes compared to 48.9% for President Trump.

“It's not just the future of our country,” George said. “I am concerned about the future of the elections. Are we going to always do mail-in ballots? How will the ballots be secured?  Who will take the ballots and who will deliver the ballots?”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has yet to rule on a GOP lawsuit, requesting a ban on all absentee ballots that arrived after Nov. 3, Election Day, according to media reports.

A middle-income, blue-collar worker, George voted for President Trump in 2016.

“I saw my paycheck and 401(k) investments increase,” she said. “Also on a national scale, peace broke out in the Middle East. Pretty impressive on the part of President Trump. His policies and the policies of his administration didn't just lift me up in income, it did for people everywhere.”