Law Offices of J. Matthew Wolfe

05/22/2026

More media coverage of our battle with the Philadelphia Republican Party leadership to invite more Republicans to become active.

Commonwealth Court reverses ruling on 10-vote minimum for ward committee candidates just days before Tuesday's primary election in Philadelphia.

05/16/2026

For those of you who have been following our case against the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, the Commonwealth Court issued and order vacating the favorable ruling that we had at the trial level and remanding it to the lower court. Basically, they said that since the Board had not failed to certify any successful write-in candidate. I get it, but still feel that the declaratory judgment action was appropriate. Just an order, but an opinion is promised. From the order, it appears that we have to wait until the certification of winning candidates process has taken place to re-file, but the opinion may give us a roadmap. We certainly plan to re-file at the appropriate time, probably bringing suit against Philadelphia Republican City Committee directly this time. Don't really care what the Democrats do. We will not stop fighting for the Republicans who want Philadelphia to have a stronger party and against the current leadership that only wants control regardless of how ineffective they are.

05/14/2026

More coverage on the lawsuit to enable us to elect more Republican Committeepeople in Philadelphia. Republican Chairman Vince Fenerty, who opposes expanding the Republican Party in this way, declined to directly comment. Although we won at trial, we filed briefs in Commonwealth Court yesterday. We are hoping for a fast decision.

Attorney Matthew Wolfe sues to block new Philadelphia election rules affecting write-in candidates for ward committees ahead of May 19 primary.

05/13/2026

Article came out about our fight to expand the Republican Party . . . Against the Republican Party. On appeal right now in Commonwealth Court.

Filling thousands of ward committee vacancies would get even harder, critic says.

05/02/2026

Broad and Liberty has commented in their Elephant in the Room column about our case to expand the ability of Republicans to get elected to local committeeperson positions in their divisions.

This Saturday marks the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, an iconic American event. No Pennsylvania Thoroughbreds are running for […]

04/28/2026

We had argument yesterday in the case filed to reverse the City Commissioners' decision to deviate from the Election Code's requirement that the candidate with the most votes for Committeeperson be certified as the winner. Today we received an order granting our request. We expect the Commissioners to appeal.

04/28/2026

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, led by Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday, has announced the successful prosecution of voter registration fraud. While there is fraud in every election, fortunately it is generally not influencing the outcome of elections. It is important, however, to take it seriously regardless of the impact because each fraudulent vote cancels out someone else's vote. This man didn't care about the outcome of elections, but was getting paid by the voter registration form. Hopefully this will send a signal to others who want to profit from voter fraud.

The suspicious applications were discovered just before the 2024 election and fueled accusations of voter fraud.

04/17/2026

For 89 years the City Commissioners have certified candidates for Committeeperson who get the most votes as the winners. Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it?

Well, this year the Commissioners voted that they will not certify candidates whose votes come as write-in votes as winning unless they receive a minimum of 10 votes, even if they receive the most votes. This could mean that a candidate who is on the ballot who gets only one vote can beat a candidate who gets nine write-in votes.

Does this make sense to you? Me neither. More importantly, I believe it to be a misinterpretation of the Election Code. Even if that’s what the Election Code required, you don’t have to be a constitutional scholar to see that this application raises an obvious issue regarding the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Free and EQUAL Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

This is particularly devastating to the Republican Party. The Democrats have lots of vacancies, but out of 3,406 committeeperson positions citywide, Republicans have only filed to fill 307 of them. In 24 wards there are no candidates at all.

So I sued the County Board of Elections. Below is a link to my motion and memo. Give it a read and tell us what you think.

I must be on the right track. Both Democratic City Committee and Republican City Committee have retained counsel and intervened to oppose this lawsuit.

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04/11/2026

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ybbo7sac7q945k22v5g34/2026.04.09-Filed-Amended-Petition.pdf?rlkey=7jwuds45v8pqxglpw7t4t6ezv&st=9oyan19l&dl=0

I filed suit against the City Commissioners. After 89 years of certifying as winners in elections for committeeperson whoever received the most votes, they voted to only certify candidates who receive write-in votes if they receive a minimum of ten. This means that a candidate with nine write-in votes can lose to a candidate with only one vote.

This is a misinterpretation of the Election Code. Do you also see the obvious violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Free and EQUAL Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution?

This change is devastating to the Republican Party in Philadelphia. There are over 3,400 committeeperson positions in the city. There are only candidates for 307 of them. In at least the last two cycles, no Republican has been elected committeeperson with ten or more votes.

We should be encouraging Republicans to get involved. Yet Republican City Committee has retained a lawyer to fight this lawsuit.

Read the petition.

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04/02/2026

Political violence is real. And it’s a crime.

The case levied against John Courtney Pollard, 63, comes at a time when election offices across the country struggle with turnover amid an uptick of election denialism and threats from the public.

03/09/2026

In 1974, the legal department of the Cleveland Browns sent this letter in response to a complaint from attorney Dale Cox (a season ticket holder), who had objected to fans throwing paper airplanes during games.

In his letter, Cox warned the team, "I will hold the club responsible for any injury sustained by any person in my party attending one of your sporting events."