Mail-Vote Madness in Pennsylvania The swing state is heading toward an election crackup that could draw the entire country into a legal brawl.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mail-vote-madness-in-pennsylvania-11599865002?mod=opinion_lead_pos1
Pennsylvania has already suffered one interminable mail-vote delay in 2020, and a repeat in November could draw the entire country into a legal brawl, while putting the result of the presidential election into serious doubt. How about heading off this too-predictable debacle before it happens?
A week after the June 2 primary, about half the counties in the Keystone State were still tallying ballots. On June 11, Philadelphia alone had 42,255 votes uncounted. President Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by 44,292.
If Mr. Trump and Joe Biden run neck and neck in November, how long might Pennsylvania keep the Electoral College hanging? In the campaign’s closing weeks, arriving mail votes will pile up in local offices, but state law says they can’t be processed until 7 a.m. on Election Day. This wasn’t enough preparation to give timely results when 1.5 million residents voted absentee in June, and it won’t be in November.
Tight deadlines are another problem. Pennsylvanians can request a mail ballot as late as 5 p.m. on Oct. 27. For votes to count, they must arrive at local election offices by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. That leaves seven days, including a Sunday, for applications to be handled, blank ballots delivered, and votes dropped off or return mailed. The U.S. Postal Service says such a turnaround is unrealistic and creates a high risk of tardiness. America’s first postmaster general, Ben Franklin, would be unhappy to see his Pennsylvania setting up the USPS for failure.
In some states, straggling ballots are valid if they’re postmarked by Election Day. Pennsylvania law has no similar provision, but Democrats are asking the state Supreme Court to conjure one. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, wants to count votes arriving by Nov. 6. Pennsylvania also lacks a way for voters to fix ballots that are rejected for suspect signatures. This is a recipe for extended legal mischief and for judges to determine which votes are counted. With the state Supreme Court controlled by Democrats, that could be what Mr. Wolf has in mind.
The state Legislature, run by Republicans, is moving a bill with fixes. Under the House proposal, which passed 112-90 last week, the deadline to request mail ballots would jump to a comfortable 15 days before the election, as the USPS suggests. Absentee votes could be pre-processed beginning the Saturday before Nov. 3. Voters with suspect signatures would be given a chance to prove their identities.
Mr. Wolf plans to veto the bill “for a multitude of reasons,” his spokeswoman says. One objection is that it “seeks to eliminate the use of drop boxes.” True enough, although it would also authorize Pennsylvanians to drop off voted mail ballots at their polling places. Mr. Wolf wants a longer period of pre-processing for mail votes: three weeks, not three days.
The tragedy would be for Republicans to pass a bill, Mr. Wolf to veto it, and Pennsylvania to barrel toward a foreseeable crash. Maybe three days of pre-processing is too little, given the busyness of Nov. 1 and 2. Maybe three weeks is too much. Mr. Wolf’s office didn’t reply Thursday to a query on the potential for compromise. “We continue to be open to negotiations,” says a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, “and hope that the Governor would meet with Republican legislative leaders.”
The same should be happening beyond Harrisburg. About a dozen states, including Wisconsin and Michigan, don’t process ballots until Election Day. Minnesotans can request a mail ballot on Nov. 2. Smells like more lawsuits.
Some analysts in Washington are so alarmed about delayed presidential results that they’re calling to delay the date of the Electoral College vote, which can be changed with an act of Congress. Inauguration Day is fixed in the Constitution as Jan. 20.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has a bill to bump the meeting of electors from Dec. 14 to Jan. 2. So Americans can spend Christmas wondering who their next President will be? There’s still time to avoid that outcome.
States shouldn’t be let off the hook. If Mr. Wolf and Pennsylvania’s legislators get together now to fix their shortsighted and potentially destructive election laws, and if other states follow, then with any luck Mr. Rubio’s bill will never be needed.
But on present trend, in a close presidential race, we are headed toward a vote-counting mess in which both sides claim victory. Don’t rule out furious supporters of the candidates battling in the street. If you think this isn’t possible in America, you haven’t been paying attention to this year’s “summer of love.”
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