All Voting is Local published its “America’s Top 10 Most Dangerous Election Deniers” list, which includes Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons among them – an allegation Parsons denies.
All Voting is Local PA works with advocates for local election officials to secure elections from conspiracy theorists who would sabotage elections, limit voter access or strip voters from measures like vote by mail, its website said.
All Voting is Local is a non-partisan, pro-voter non-profit organization that operates in eight states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“Moving into the midterms my concern is Josh Parsons is on the board of elections … in a time where there is a constant and persistent narrative about restricting voting among Pennsylvanians, I’m concerned about someone with a long history of making it harder for people to vote,” said Deborah Hinchey, Pennsylvania state director of All Voting is Local.
In July, 2022, the Associated Press reported the Pennsylvania Department of State sued Berks, Lancaster and Fayette counties, each controlled by Republican local governments, for refusing to report primary ballot results with undated exterior envelopes and not property certifying vote tallies.
In November 2024, U.S. Sen. David McCormick, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania sued the Bucks County Board of Elections challenging its decision to count 405 mail-in ballots which had been wrongly dated or left undated in the November general election, according to Democracy Docket.
On the heels of the challenge, the Bucks County Board of Elections did not count the undated or wrongly dated ballots in accordance with a state Supreme Court ruling, VoteBeat Pennsylvania reported.
A subsequent state Supreme Court ruling in November 2024 upheld a decision that allows voters to cast provisional ballots if their mail-in ballots have been disqualified.
The full list released by All Voting is Local of the nation’s top election deniers is available here; while Parsons ranks number 6 on the All Voting is Local list he denies the allegation.
Parsons pushed back in an email request for comment over his appearance on the organization’s election denier list and allegations he refused to certify past elections that have made it harder for Lancaster County residents to vote.
“The Lancaster County Board of Elections has almost always been unanimous in our decisions (two Republicans and one Democrat) as it ultimately was in 2022. All three of us were aligned in following the law as it currently existed,” Parsons said in an email.
A video of the May 26, 2022 board of elections meeting may be viewed here.
During the meeting county officials reported contested ballot numbers and said ballots with wrong or missing dates on their outer envelopes – according to then-law – would not be counted.
Those ballots were “segregated” and held aside in case another court ruling permitted them to be counted.
Litigation over whether or not to accept ballots with incorrect or missing dates on their exteriors has been a subject of litigation since mail in voting was implemented in 2019 as Pennsylvania ACT 77, which expanded voter mail in ballots.
Common Cause Pennsylvania reported nearly 40% of Pennsylvanians voting in the 2020 general election voted by mail.
In 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled provisional ballots must be counted by voters whose mail-in ballots were deemed invalid.
READ: Supreme Court Will Decide Whether States Can Keep Counting Late Mail Ballots
Today, the Supreme Court signaled it could back a Trump-endorsed effort to stop states from counting late-arriving mail-in ballots, USA Today reported.
“We try to ascertain what the law is, which is not always easily [done] post Act 77, and we follow it whether we like it or not,” Parsons said in an email.
“My understanding is that is the current law” that voters should fill out, sign and date the envelopes in order for them to be considered valid on the printed envelope, Parsons said during the 2022 Lancaster County commissioners meeting.
In 2022 time, commissioners unanimously agreed to segregate unopened, undated or mis dated ballots and hold them in the event of a legal decision requiring they be counted.
“I have been a vocal critic of Act 77 for many reasons, but so have many of my commissioner colleagues across the state because it threw our election system into chaos. Before Act 77 we had clear rules for elections and never had this much litigation,” Parsons said.
Hinchey said Parsons also voted to remove Lancaster’s only ballot drop box citing election integrity as the reason for its removal.
As of now, mail in ballots must be hand-delivered to the Lancaster board of elections or delivered through the postal service, she said.
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported Parsons and fellow Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino refused to certify the 2022 May primary election.
According to CREW:
“The Lancaster County Commission then refused to recertify a result that complied with the law and included all legal votes. Eventually, a court ordered compliance and the county commission complied.”
Last year Parsons ran against Democrat James Malone in a special election to replace Ryan Aument, who resigned in December 2024 to serve as then-elect U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s state director.
Malone scored an upset in northern Lancaster County, beating Parsons in a district where a Democrat was last elected about 136 years ago, reported WHYY.
