Eugene DePasquale Runs For Attorney General of Pennsylvania on Promises To Protect Voting Rights

Eugene DePasquale is no stranger to holding elected office in Pennsylvania — he served as the state’s auditor general for eight years and before that as a state legislator for six years. Now, he’s running to be the attorney general of Pennsylvania.

He certainly has big shoes to fill. The state’s attorney general during and after the 2020 election, who repeatedly fought former President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ attempts to overturn the election in court, was none other than now Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).

DePasquale told Democracy Docket that he already has a working relationship with Shapiro. Back when they were Pennsylvania legislators, he and Shapiro served on the state House Judiciary Committee together.

In the November election, which is less than 9 weeks away, DePasquale faces Republican opponent Dave Sunday, who has been York County, Pennsylvania’s district attorney since 2018 and is running on a platform of being “tough on crime.”

In Democracy Docket’s latest candidate Q&A for the 2024 cycle, DePasquale discusses how, if elected, he will work with Shapiro to protect voting rights, reduce threats at polling places and educate voters on how to cast their ballots.

Responses have been edited for style and clarity.

Why are you running to be the attorney general of Pennsylvania?

I believe in this particular moment, we need someone who has a record of holding bad actors accountable, has the ability to win a statewide election and has a record of protecting Pennsylvanians in every single county — whether it be reproductive freedom, taking on pollution, corporate misdeeds, prescription drug prices and keeping our communities safe. That’s why I’m running.

Why are passionate about protecting democracy and how you would protect democracy and voting rights as attorney general?

To be blunt, this is the whole ball game here. If we don’t have our democracy, so many other things go away. I’ve got two kids. They’re younger — 24 and 21. I love our country. I love our world. And to me, this is what I can do to help step up and make sure that [I’m] not only doing the job of the attorney general and protecting the community — taking on corporate-backed actors and punishing anyone that tries to scam our seniors — but certainly protecting our democracy.

Democracy especially came under threat during and after the 2020 election. Shapiro, the attorney general at the time, went to court on numerous occasions to fight Trump and other Republicans trying to interfere with or overturn the 2020 election results. How would you address similar situations after the 2024 election or after future elections? 

I’ve already done some work on protecting our elections in Pennsylvania. [As auditor general], I investigated our voter registration database. And it’s through my recommendations that we made that system more secure, helping lead to the 2020 election being our most secure election in Pennsylvania history. So, I already have a record of protecting our democracy. Certainly, we saw what happened in 2020 with all the lawsuits. 

As attorney general, my job isn’t to pick the winner. My job is to make sure [the election results] — whoever the voters pick — actually get upheld. I’ll make sure that anyone who legally casts a ballot gets that vote counted and that the voters’ will gets ratified. 

Recently, a judge in Butler County said voters can’t cure defective ballots that are missing inner-secrecy envelopes, known as naked ballots. What is the impact of rulings like this? What would you do to mitigate this?

I may disagree with the law, but as attorney general, I can’t make the law, I can only enforce it. 

For example, [some ballots don’t get counted due to] the lack of a date. To me, the postmark should be the issue. But, it is in the law and the courts have said that whether we agree with it politically or not, that’s the law. (Since this interview, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court blocked enforcement of the law requiring election officials to reject otherwise valid mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect handwritten dates on their outer return envelopes).

So, our job is to make sure the voters know what is in [the election laws]. Where my job comes in is if someone does date [their ballot envelope] and [people] still try to challenge it because they say the signature doesn’t completely match what’s on their voter registration, but you can see it’s very similar. That’s where I come in and say, that vote’s got to count.

What do you say to citizens or voters who are scared their votes won’t be counted or scared they don’t know what the proper process is to make sure their votes do get counted?

The Department of State is going to put information out on how to cast your ballot by mail. And a lot of people have done this. I try not to get people too panicky on this. If you cast your ballot, put it in the secrecy envelope, sign it and date it, your vote will get counted as long as it arrives on time. But, if you have any nervousness about that, go to your polling place and cast your vote. And all of these issues go away. Again, voting by mail is there for people to have the option. But, if people are uncomfortable with that and they can make it to their polling place on election day, then do that.

There is a big discussion being had on how to vote and what is the best way to vote. Do you think there needs to be more education on this subject?

There is absolutely no question. I know a lot of emphasis from the Democratic Party is going to go on this. I think there are a lot of independent, conservative or liberal-aligned groups, as well as nonprofit groups [emphasizing this]. 

Recently, Shapiro established an election hotline in Pennsylvania for voters and election workers to report any threats of violence. How do you seek to address increased threats of physical violence to voters, candidates and election workers?

Right now I’m a candidate, so my job would be — just like any other citizen — to report that to the appropriate authorities that the governor has outlined. I know the governor is not going to accept any of this at any polling place. If you’ve been to a polling place, most of the [election workers] are doing this [because] they just believe it’s their job as being a good citizen to try to help our election process. The actual judges of elections in these areas — most of them are not part of this effort to try to threaten our democracy. They’re trying to do the right thing, too. 

And they have various protocols that have been put in place in case there are any threats. If and when I am your attorney general, then my job is to work with the state police, local law enforcement, the judges of elections and county commissioners — who make up the election board — to make sure that I’m doing my part to help supplement whatever help they need.

How did your experience as Pennsylvania’s auditor general help prepare you for the huge role of attorney general?

As the [former] auditor general, I’ve already run a complicated state agency. I’ve led the legal department there. In addition to that, I led tough investigations all over the state. I held people accountable who were committing bad acts. My investigation had found over 3,000 untested rape kits. Working together with my team, we cleared that backlog and we brought justice to victims.

It was my investigation that found 58,000 unanswered phone calls at the child abuse hotline. Any single one of those calls could have been life or death for a child. But it wasn’t enough for myself and my team to find that problem. I went to every single county, making sure the child protection workers had the tools they needed to make sure our children were better protected. 

When it came to reproductive freedom, the women of Pennsylvania who were going to crisis pregnancy centers were being lied to by this organization called Real Alternatives. It was using Pennsylvania tax dollars to lie to pregnant women about what their reproductive rights were and what would happen to them. They would lie to them about what would happen to them if they chose various paths. My investigation exposed them for the frauds they are, and it led to Governor Shapiro canceling that contract, basically punishing them for lying to women. 

That’s some of the work I’ve already done as your auditor general. And as attorney general, I would just take it to the next level. I’d not only protect people from violent crime and punish people who commit violent acts but also take on corporate polluters and anyone who’s trying to scam our seniors, take on the student loan industry if they’re trying to gouge our students across the state and certainly take on the people trying to price gouge us when it comes to prescription drugs.

You were a legislator as well. Can you talk about how that experience may help you as attorney general?

I was on the Judiciary Committee. My experience is very similar to that of the former attorney general, now Governor Shapiro. We both served on the Judiciary Committee together. Being in the legislature helps let you know what the actual policy goals of many laws are. As attorney general, you’re enforcing something that the legislature has already done.

It also helps me with relationships across the aisle. If there is something that I feel is a gap in the law, again, I can’t enforce a law that doesn’t exist, but if there are additional tools that I need as attorney general to make sure I’m protecting the state better, then I can certainly work with allies on both sides of the aisle to try to get those additional tools so I can be even more effective at my job.

Bipartisanship has been a frequently discussed issue at the national level and state levels. People are asking “How does it still exist?” and “How do we try to allow it to prosper?” How would you push for bipartisanship and try to get things done across the aisle in a time when things are so divisive?

The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed me in the primary because they said particularly in these partisan polarized times, we need a chief prosecutor of the state who isn’t a partisan warrior.

I’m a proud Democrat, but more importantly, I’m a Pennsylvanian and I’ll enforce the law evenly across the board. I was tough and fair on the Republican governor as auditor general. I was tough and fair on a Democratic governor. And I know that angered people on both sides of the aisle, but it also earned me a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle. And I will utilize that as attorney general to drive the change that’s needed in the legislature and in laws to make sure that I can do an even greater job of protecting the public.

How will you work to ensure that people’s voting rights are being protected — especially people in certain minority groups whose rights historically and presently are being threatened and oftentimes aren’t represented in our government?

We have a lot of allies on this. First of all, we have good Pennsylvania laws on allowing people to vote. We have vote by mail. We have in-person voting. And you can even drop [your ballot] off at the drop box. Now some counties are more accessible than others, but we have more voter options now than we’ve had in the vast majority of Pennsylvania history. We also have a lot of protections for people. 

We also have an ally in the governor’s office. The state police know he is the leader of that organization. If any danger happens at any polling place, he can deploy those resources to make sure voters, no matter who they’re voting for, get the protection they need to cast that ballot. 

What would you say to people — specifically we’ve seen this a lot more on the Republican side — who are saying vote-by-mail causes fraud and causes an untrustworthy election? How do you plan to dispel those myths that have been spread and stop people from casting doubt on our election system?

All we can do is tell the truth, which is that our Pennsylvania election system is safe and reliable. And [certain] people — like Doug Mastriano (R), who lost his governor’s race by 15 points — are going to continue to say what they’re going to say. But for the rest of us, we just keep telling the truth and let people know what their options are for how to vote. If they legally cast that ballot, then the vote will get counted and then the votes will be ratified.

You grew up in Pittsburgh, and I saw that you are a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Do you have any predictions for the upcoming NFL season?

Yes. The champs are the champs until someone knocks them off. I’m never going to bet against Patrick Mahomes. He is incredible to watch. I certainly think the [Philadelphia] Eagles are, in my opinion, the greatest threat to the Steelers in the NFL.

I’m going to give this prediction. I think it’ll be the Chiefs against the Eagles in the Super Bowl. With My Steelers — sometimes this gets me in political trouble —- I just don’t think they are Super Bowl-ready yet. We’re not even sure who’s going to be our quarterback. So I think, again, until someone proves me otherwise, the Chiefs are the team to beat in the AFC. The Eagles are the team to beat in the NFC.

Some teams can give them a run for their money, but I think the Eagles are the better team. And then come back to me in the middle of the season when every team is decimated by injuries, and I’ll give you a new opinion.