They’re Cheating In Pennsylvania
Lemme get this straight. Americans began voting for president as early as the 20th of September - in Minnesota and Virginia - and now, 13 days AFTER Election Day five states are still counting, accepting and finding ballots?
Any wonder some of us believe that election fraud is common in the United States? Oh, and the fact that few people are ever prosecuted for it is not proof that it doesn’t happen.
Nowhere are suspicions of election shenanigans stronger than in Pennsylvania where election officials are openly defying a state supreme court ruling that disqualifies ballots lacking signatures or postmarks.
They are doing this at the behest of Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, who lost the election to challenger Sen-elect Dave McCormick.
In a Nov. 15 editorial headlined “Democrats Thumb Their Nose At The rule Of Law In Pennsylvania,” The Washington Post editorial board blasted Pennsylvania Democrats for playing cute with vote counting.
Before the Nov. 5 election, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that provisional ballots must be signed in two required places and that mail-in votes must be dated. Yet elected Democratic officials in Philadelphia and three other counties — Bucks, Centre and Montgomery — voted this week to defy these and other court decisions at the request of lawyers for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who trails GOP challenger Dave McCormick by about 24,000 votes, with almost all of the roughly 7 million ballots cast having been counted. These Democrats’ decisions will almost certainly be overturned on appeal, but the mere attempt to defy judicial rulings is corrosive to democracy and invites similar behavior in future elections.
Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, offered this breathtaking rationalization on Thursday: “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” she said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
It’s not just Pennsylvania. They continue to count votes in California, Alaska, Iowa and Ohio, leaving five tight races for the House of Representatives undecided.
This doesn’t pass the smell test. States need to fix this.
The best fix would be Election Day-only voting - polls open 24 hours - paper ballots and counting machines, such as the ones in use in Virginia. Absentee ballots could only be cast with a valid reason.
If Florida can count all 11 million votes and have results by 10 p.m. on Election Day, so can every other state. Only two other states: California and Texas had as many votes to count.
Dragging out the count is sloppy. It offers opportunities for cheating and undermines the public’s faith in elections.
The Trump administration needs to go on an election integrity jihad, forcing states to tighten rules. And abide by them.
