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Under subpoena from city elections officials, a former GOP ward leader refused to testify this week about his role in diverting mail ballots requested by dozens of Republican voters in South Philadelphia to a P.O. box he controlled.

Billy Lanzilotti invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination through a letter sent by his lawyer Thursday, the same day he had been summoned to appear at a hearing of the Philadelphia City Commissioners.

His refusal to attend along with testimony at the hearing from voters he and others helped to apply for ballots escalates concerns that the effort may have violated the law. Lanzilottis actions had already led to his ouster from his ward leader position and raised concerns about the integrity of the ballots.

Leonard Armstrong, 71, told the commissioners Lanzilotti helped him fill out his ballot application, delivered his ballot, and then dropped it in the mail for him after hed filled it out.

It already had postage, so I didnt see any big deal about it. I didnt know what I was getting involved in, he said during a hearing at the Guerin Recreation Center, in the same South Philadelphia neighborhood where Lanzilotti based his ballot effort.

State law requires voters to return their own ballots unless they have a disability. Third-party ballot delivery what Republicans call ballot harvesting is forbidden. Armstrong said he didnt know that.

It was the first [time I voted by mail], he said. And it will be the last, I can tell you that. Even on my deathbed, it will be my last.

Questioned by the commissioners, Armstrong said he knew he was requesting a mail ballot, but not that it was going to a P.O. box.

Neither did the two other voters who testified Thursday after being subpoenaed. They said they never received the ballots they had applied for the ones sent to Lanzilottis P.O. box, which is also the mailing address for a Republican political action committee he had registered a few months earlier. Both voters used new ballots after elections officials, concerned about what Lanzilotti was up to, reached out to them, voided their original ballots, and sent replacements to their homes.

The voters said those ballots were legitimate and should be counted. City elections officials agreed and voted Friday to accept them, as well as those of three other voters Lanzilotti or others working with him had helped.

I do not believe the voters did anything wrong that would warrant their ballots not being counted, Chris OHara, an investigator for the commissioners, said Thursday. He had interviewed several of the voters and helped them obtain replacement ballots.

Though he refused to testify, Lanzilotti maintained in earlier interviews with The Inquirer that he had done nothing wrong.

He has since referred all questions to his attorney, A. Charles Peruto Jr., who said Friday that his client had made a simple mistake. Lanzilotti stopped his ballot delivery efforts after a May 6 story in The Inquirer raised questions about his effort, Peruto said. That could explain why some voters didnt receive their original ballots, he said, Lanzilotti had them and never delivered them.

He just froze up and did nothing. He stopped, Peruto said. We intend to answer the charges, if any are brought. There was no criminal intent.

The District Attorneys Office has said it is aware of the matter but spokesperson Jane Roh has declined to say whether it is investigating. A representative from the office attended Thursdays hearing.

Lanzilotti has maintained that he had only been offering a service to the voters when he and a few others associated with his political action committee, the Republican Registration Coalition, began knocking on doors in South Philadelphia, offering to help Republicans sign up to vote by mail.

He acknowledged filling out the address portion of the voters ballot applications, inserting his P.O. box instead of the voters home addresses. He said he had their ballots sent to him so they could be hand-delivered by someone they trusted.

It is not illegal for voters to request to have their mail ballots sent to an address other than their own. However, state law requires them to fill out and deliver their applications and ballots themselves, with an exception for disabled voters, who must explicitly acknowledge they had help from a third party in filling out their forms or mailing their ballots.

No such signatures appeared on any of the 39 mail ballot applications submitted by Lanzilotti or those working with him. And in several cases, the addresses were written in the same handwriting across multiple forms while the rest of the forms appeared individually filled out.

Several of the voters whose applications were requested through Lanzilotti told The Inquirer they had no idea who the men were when they showed up at their doors, though they accepted the help applying for mail ballots.

I dont even know who he was, Jackie OKeefe, one of the affected voters who testified at Thursdays hearing, said of the man who assisted her in filling out her application. He told me his name, but I have no clue who he was.

Lanzilotti has faced professional repercussions from his party which has run candidates who have attacked mail voting and falsely portrayed it as rife with abuse since The Inquirer first reported on his ballot effort.

His fellow Republican ward leaders ousted him from his post leading the 39th Ward in South Philadelphia, and he was barred from holding any party office in the city in the future. He also lost a job working on the reelection campaign of U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks).

Lanzilotti had been running for ward leader in the 26th Ward, where his mail ballot effort was focused.

Two other men working with Lanzilotti Shamus ODonnell, 27, and C.J. Parker, 24, were also fired from roles with the state Republican Party.

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Philly officials subpoenaed the man behind a potential GOP ballot harvesting effort. He refused to testify. - The Philadelphia Inquirer