Presler rallies voters with Bucks GOP in Levittown

Voter registration guru Scott Presler came to Levittown on Monday to rally voters and campaign workers during on-demand voting.

Although Presler was his usual vivacious self, some Republicans there said they discovered that many people don’t realize there’s an election this year. 

“Lower Bucks County, Bensalem, Levittown, Bristol Township, even, we all know are trending to the right,” said Presler. “All it takes, guys, is a little bit of elbow grease. A little sweat equity.”

Tuesday was the last day to vote early in person, but mail-in ballots could still be used. Presler, whose efforts helped President Trump win Pennsylvania, recommends “banking the vote,” whenever possible, since Election Day can be unpredictable, with problems at polling stations or voters who face personal emergencies. 

Presler noted that Bucks County, which flipped from blue to red last year, is a bellwether county for Pennsylvania. The latest state numbers show 192,609 Democrats, 202,815 Republicans, 67,093 unaffiliated and 19,020 other parties.

Presler has led the push to vote against retaining three Supreme Court justices who are on the ballot: Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht. The trio was elected as Democrats. If they are not retained, new elections would be held. The court has a 5-2 Democratic majority.

Asked about the proliferation of Vote Yes signs and the few Vote No signs in yards, Presler said, “Democrats are spending their money on Vote Yes signs. Republicans are spending our money on staff. Signs don’t vote. People do.”

But why oppose these justices, who have the recommendation of the state Bar Association?

“Historically, only one justice has never been retained,” Presler said. “So we understand we’re going against an uphill battle. But at the end of the day, no one has ever really focused on this in 20 years, since 2005, when Justice Nigro was not retained.”

The voters ousted Russell Nigro, a Democrat, due to a voter backlash over pay raises for government officials approved by the state legislature earlier that year.

With Donohue turning 73 years old this year and under law only being able to serve two years of a ten-year term, and Wecht and Dougherty approving Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown of Pennsylvania during the Covid pandemic, and gerrymandering the Congressional maps to favor Democrats, allowing mail-in ballots to come three days after Election Day, freeing Bill Cosby of sex assault conviction, a lot of people will vote no,” Presler said. “And I hope we’re going to get a majority no vote. And we’re going to kick all three off the ballot and allow fresh faces and new voices to come to our Pennsylvania Supreme Court.”

[Editor’s note: Justice Wecht did not actually vote with Donohue and Dougherty on the election law issues.]

In Bucks County, the row officers, including the district attorney and sheriff, are on the ballot.

“If we don’t reelect Fred Harran, then Bucks County becomes Philadelphia,” said Presler. Asked why, he said, “Because we need a sheriff that’s actually going to prosecute criminals, keeping them off the streets. We know the Democrats are pro-cashless bail. We know under Democrat rule you’re going to see criminals back on the streets within 24 hours of being jailed, they’re going to be back on the streets. Not with a Republican sheriff. And not with Republican Jen Schorn for D.A.”

Bucks County Republican Chair Pat Poprik agreed, noting that people trust Republicans more than Democrats on public safety issues.

Shorn’s opponent Joe Khan agrees with progressive Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner, she said. If they don’t have to pay for bail, defendants have no reason to show up for court, she said.

However, Harran’s opponent Danny Ceisler said he does support pretrial jail for those deemed a danger to the community or a flight risk, while believing others should be released. But Khan wants to eliminate cash bail. 

“That’s why I feel good,” said Poprik. “The issues at the forefront are ours.”

Falls Township Tax Collector Kim Scarpiello and township supervisor candidate Jennifer Metzger were also talking with voters at the Lower Bucks Government Service Center on Monday. 

Scarpiello has been a tax collector for 32 years and is on both Democratic and Republican sides of the ballot. 

“I love my township. I love my job,” she said.

Metzger said the board is not fiscally prudent and is mishandling environmental issues, such as the landfill and the data center coming to Keystone Trade Center.

“That data center is going to take up a lot of our grid,” she said. “There are a lot of things that need to be negotiated: how it’s going to impact our environment. How it’s going to impact our people.” And she believes the current supervisors are not asking questions to protect the residents.

“It concerns me because it’s our community,” Metzger said. “We want to keep looking like Bucks County. We don’t want to pay like New Jersey and look like Philadelphia.”

Julianna Capriotti Winberg, the Falls Township GOP chair, said many people don’t realize there’s an election going on.

“When you go to doors, people say, ‘I didn’t know there was an election.’”

“To get the information out there is so hard, especially to our seniors,” she added. Many senior centers are Democrat run and won’t let them in,” she said. 

With his organization, Early Vote Action, Presler has been going back and forth between Pennsylvania and New Jersey this year, helping Republican Jack Ciattarelli in his bid for governor.

However, “Bucks County has stolen my heart,” said Presler. 

Linda Stein is a Philadelphia area journalist.