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| DATE | 2020-11-30 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] The Voting system has fraud baked in...
|
wsj.com
Opinion | The Election Lost in Pennsylvania Court
The Editorial Board
5-6 minutes
Election observers stand behind a barrier and watch as election office
workers process ballots as counting continues from the general election
at the Allegheny County elections returns warehouse in Pittsburgh,
Friday, Nov. 6, 2020.
Photo: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
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Nicole Ziccarelli is a 39-year-old lawyer, a mother of four, and a
Republican candidate for state Senate in a district east of Pittsburgh.
As of last Tuesday, it seemed she might topple a Democratic incumbent,
Jim Brewster, whom Ms. Ziccarelli led by four votes, according to
unofficial returns.
Today she’s behind by 89. What happened? After a state Supreme Court
ruling, Allegheny County tallied some 300 absentee ballots that were in
dispute due to incomplete voter declarations. These ballots have proper
signatures, but the voter neglected to date them. Ms. Ziccarelli’s
lawyers must be pulling their hair out: State law explicitly says that
upon completing an absentee ballot, the voter “shall then fill out, date
and sign the declaration printed on such envelope.”
But when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is around, the words in a
statute are no guarantee. A bare majority, four of seven Justices, found
that undated ballots are invalid. One of them, however, said the rule
should apply only “prospectively.” This could now swing that state
Senate seat, although Ms. Ziccarelli is appealing, according to her
attorney, Matt Haverstick. “It is the outcome of the litigation that is
now in federal court,” Mr. Haverstick says, “that’s going to decide this
election.”
Imagine if Joe Biden or Donald Trump were in a similar position. Across
Pennsylvania, there are thousands of undated ballots. The state Supreme
Court’s ruling involved two batches: 2,349 in all of Allegheny County,
as well as 2,470 in Philadelphia. If the presidential margin were a few
hundred or thousand, instead of 80,000, it could be a huge deal.
Statewide, mail votes broke 76% for Mr. Biden. Assuming the same ratio
for undated mail votes, the question of whether to count the ballots in
Philly and Allegheny alone would represent a swing of about 2,500.
We’ll spare you the creative legal explanations by the state judges,
especially Justice David Wecht, who was elected as a Democrat. Suffice
it to say that this is a perfect illustration of the problems with mass
mail voting as it has been quickly grafted onto American elections: It
introduces slack and too much discretion into the system.
Some ballots show up late, whether the blame is on voters or lax
deadlines or the post office. Other ballots are missing signatures,
dates, secrecy envelopes and so forth. Local officials differ in what
they decide to count. Many jurisdictions give voters a chance to fix
faulty ballots, but many don’t. In a close election, all of this is
catnip for lawyers and politically oriented judges.
There are good reasons to end the mail-vote experiment once the pandemic
recedes. But at the least, state lawmakers should take this opportunity
to go through their election codes and try to wring out this kind of
ambiguity, as much as possible. The next election will be here before
they know it.
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Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the November 30, 2020, print edition.
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