More Pennsylvania Election Follies

Nevertheless, it’s a nasty precedent. Nobody ought to need a non-public, partisan arms race to underwrite government-led get-out-the-vote drives in closely Democratic or Republican cities. Mr. Zuckerberg says he doesn’t intend to reprise his Covid largesse, however lawmakers are moderately performing to ban it as a result of different billionaires are more likely to attempt.

The dangerous information begins with the truth that Pennsylvania nonetheless received’t let officers preprocess mail votes earlier than Election Day. Many states do that, together with Florida, which is why they will ship outcomes on election night time or quickly afterward. Going days and not using a clear winner helps conspiracy theories take root.

Pennsylvania’s GOP Legislature handed an election invoice final yr that will have allowed 5 days of preprocessing. Mr. Wolf vetoed it, since he opposed different objects, equivalent to a voter-ID rule. Preprocessing is an apparent repair that wouldn’t assist both celebration and on the margin would increase confidence in election outcomes.

Also, sorry to say, the litigation over Pennsylvania’s May 17 main isn’t over. A slew of latest courtroom rulings have tried to kind out whether or not to depend mail ballots that arrived on time however voters uncared for up to now, as state legislation directs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit stated such votes should be legitimate. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to dam that interpretation, however three dissenting Justices known as it “very likely wrong.” This month the High Court was requested to take the case on its common docket, and we hope it does.

Meantime, three counties have declined to play ball on counting. The state sued them final week, saying they’re “holding up final certification of Pennsylvania’s 2022 primary,” as a result of they refuse to ship up to date totals together with undated votes. The counties have been tight-lipped as to why, however Lancaster County says the state’s demand “is contrary to the law or any existing court order.” It guarantees to “vigorously defend its position to follow the law to ensure the integrity of elections.”

Oh, and Pennsylvania’s whole mail-voting system could be on the authorized chopping block. Act 77, handed in 2019, provides any citizen the chance to vote absentee, no excuse wanted. In January a state appeals courtroom stated Act 77 violates the Pennsylvania structure. The state Supreme Court is weighing the query.

To sum up: Voting absentee with out an excuse could be unconstitutional, undated ballots could be invalid, and remaining election outcomes could possibly be a very long time coming in November. Nice work, Pennsylvania.