The Pennsylvania absentee & mail-in ballot canvassing process is a mess – you've heard about the elimination of signature verification requirements, but it’s actually even worse than just that. Time for a quick primer since we’ll undoubtedly be hearing more in the days ahead:
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Back in October Kathy Boockvar, the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sought declarative relief from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania regarding...
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...whether "county election boards are authorized or required under the Pennsylvania Election Code to reject absentee or mail-in ballots with alleged or perceived signature variances."
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Her argument isn’t particularly hard to understand – basically the General Assembly didn’t provide procedures for signature verification & while she acknowledged there were certain technical reasons a ballot could be set aside, she argued a signature defect wasn’t one of them.
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Ultimately the court sided with her, and allowed the Pennsylvania election boards to proceed with the election canvassing process that would not include signature verification. pacourts.us/assets/opinion…
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But here’s where it gets really interesting – and Boockvar’s behavior becomes unconscionable:
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In its analysis, the court acknowledged the inherent risk of submitting a mail-in or absentee ballot: “unlike in-person voters, mail-in or absentee voters are not provided any opportunity to cure perceived defects in a timely manner.”
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We all know that there is a risk when submitting an absentee ballot that if you’ve not done so in the proper way, your ballot could be deemed invalid and you’d have no way of knowing it. That’s unfortunate, but it’s how the law works. There are no do-overs. Or are there?
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We’ve all heard of “ballot harvesting” where political operatives manage the absentee voting process from start to finish on behalf of their candidate or party, and potentially do so in a way that exerts undue influence, or even invites outright fraud.
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Well, Boockvar took that concept to the next level and implemented a highly suspect and potentially illegal “ballot perfecting” operation late the night before the election: 10/
Her department told county election directors that they should provide information to *party and candidate representatives* during the “pre-canvass” period regarding rejections of absentee ballots...
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SPECIFICALLY so those “party and candidate representatives” could facilitate the curing of those ballots by finding the voters and assisting them in completing provisional ballots.
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Note: the “pre-canvass” period starts no earlier than 7am on election morning and is essentially a time for them to sort out the ballots and prepare them for counting.
Not a time for "fixing" them.
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Section 3146.8 of the Pennsylvania Election law is quite clear that “No person observing, attending, or participating in an pre-canvass meeting may disclose the results of any portion of any pre-canvass meting prior to the close of the polls.”
READ THAT AGAIN
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In Philly & Montgomery County there are reports (and lawsuits) alleging that democratic election workers were working to identify deficient ballots so provisional ballots could be cast to cure the deficiencies: inquirer.com/politics/elect…
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Conveniently, these democrat election workers were also allegedly keeping GOP observers "too far away from the actual canvassing to provide any meaningful oversight".
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What are the odds that this late night policy push encouraging Election Day malarkey clearly against Pennsylvania Election Code benefited one party disproportionately?
YOU KNOW THE ANSWER.
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And yes, Republicans are suing over this: forbes.com/sites/alisondu…
Let's hope it makes a difference.
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Where we stand... tl;dr: expect an ugly couple of days or longer — the outcome is far from certain. Based on the attached map and the latest projections, here is what I expect to happen: 1/
AK goes to the President, AZ, WI & NC go Biden. Trump will carry Michigan — based on % outstanding, Wayne County (Detroit) & Oakland County (Detroit suburb) will likely close the gap by another 200k, so it could be less than 10k, but he seems to still be headed toward victory. 2/
If he also pulls GA out & gets the ME-2 delegate, he’ll be sitting at 249 pending the 20 from PA, which he also looks poised to carry, but not for awhile because of their asinine accommodations for absentee ballots... 3/
Let’s be clear - this kerfuffle about the 1995 Crime Bill is a distraction. The convo needs to be about Joe Biden’s horrible legacy shaping the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, a follow-on to his failed 1982 Biden-Thurmond bill (which Reagan vetoed).
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This Biden gem set in motion the legacy of over-policing and police brutality across the country. Brutal for black communities. It “curtailed access to bail; eliminated parole; created a sentencing commission; expanded civil asset forfeiture; & increased funding for states.”
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Biden also “helped lead the push for the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which lengthened sentences for many offenses, created the infamous 100:1 crack versus cocaine sentencing disparity, and provided new funds for the escalating drug war.”
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Questions remain for Chairman @jamesdickey and @TexasGOP — what are they doing to ensure confidence in their implementation of the Meeting Pulse voting system? The integrity of ALL voting must be sacrosanct. #rpt#rptcon 1/
In yesterday’s final vote for national delegate #1 in CD21 why was I able to cast a ballot as participant ID 211 (authenticated from phone) *AND* participant ID 214 (UNAUTHENTICATED from browser that had NEVER LOGGED INTO Meeting Pulse)? Was it a misconfiguration of that room? 2/
When a Point of Order was raised about this, and the CD21 caucus chair conferred with “someone at @TexasGOP”, why was the problem acknowledged as able to occur, but brushed off as an “honor system” issue instead of a fatal flaw in election security @jamesdickey? 3/
The ongoing @TexasGOP virtual convention is turning out to be a disaster. We’ve recently discovered that in certain circumstances unauthenticated users CAN cast ballots — multiple ballots!!! #txlege
Until there is a complete audit and a full accounting, I’m calling upon Chairman @jamesdickey and the State Republican Executive Committee to suspend voting — if not the entire virtual convention.
I understand that certain office holders who didn’t want to face the grassroots for their leadership failures were the ones pushing to have this be a virtual convention — but now is the time to do the responsible thing. #txlege
Real-talk for a minute: this “second wave” of COVID isn’t what we should most concerned with. It’s the “third wave” — that will bring with it an uptick in death rates.
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Clearly this second wave is being driven predominantly by two factors: the protests and a desire for close-socialization in the 20-30yo cohort.
You need to look no farther than the timeline and the impacted age groups to see this.
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Large social gatherings with close contact — even those held outside — are less than wise right now. They should be minimized and avoided by responsible people.
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