Why Does PA GOP Want To Delay The Vote-Count?
PennLive.com reported on Thursday (October 15) that, “Closed-door talks on legislation seen as crucial to producing a prompt election result in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania appeared stuck Thursday between the Democratic governor and the Legislature’s House Republican majority.”
Republican Leadership will not agree to allow “pre-processing” of mail-ballots without a quid pro quo.
The quid pro quo that Republicans are demanding of Governor Wolf, before they will acquiesce to allow pre-processing of mail ballots, is that he must remove the drop boxes where voters can deposit their mail-ballots; and that the county residency requirement for pollwatchers must be lifted.
However, the governor refuses to give the Republicans their quid pro quo, and therefore, county election boards will not even be permitted slit open the millions of mail-ballot envelopes that they will be sitting on, until polls open at 7:00 A.M. on November 3.
Why won’t Republicans allow pre-processing of mail-ballots without a quid pro quo?
Members of the GOP, from President Trump down to the Republican Committee of Montgomery County, have told us why they don’t want voters to be able to deposit their mail-ballots into drop boxes. And they have also told us why they think the residency requirement for pollwatchers should be rescinded. This is not to say that the Republican rationale for eliminating drop boxes and waiving the poll watcher residency requirement is correct or incorrect; but at least they are making an attempt to explain why they have taken these positions.
However, the GOP is not even going through the motions of making an argument as to why they think election boards should not be allowed to pre-process ballots.
What are we to make of the Republicans’ position on pre-processing mail-ballots?
They’re willing to comprimise on it, but only if Democrats will comprimise on drop boxes and the pollwatcher residency requirement.
In other words, Republicans are telling us that pre-processing the mail-ballots is a bad thing, but it’s not such a terrible thing, that they wouldn’t be willing to give in on it, if Democrats would just abandon their insidious plan of providing drop boxes as an alternative to the unreliable postal service; and, if the Democrats will waive their opposition to the residency requirement for pollwatchers, which has been in effect for 93 years.
The Conspiracy Theory
Pennsylvania Republicans want you to go to bed on November 3, thinking that Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania. And the best way to achieve that goal is to make sure that as few of the mail-ballots as possible will have been counted in the first few hours after the polls close.
It’s no secret that the number of Democrats voting by mail is overwhelmingly higher than the number of Republicans.
By not allowing election boards to pre-process mail-ballots, Republicans can be assured that Trump will have a huge lead in Pennsylvania, during the first few hours after the polls have closed
The Creepy Explanation – Do you have a better one?
The reason why Pennsylvania Republicans don’t want mail-ballots counted on Election Night, is that they want to help enable Trump to make his claim that the election was stolen in Pennsylvania.
Is there a different, legitimate reason why the PA GOP is so eager to prevent voters from knowing the full resuts of the election, as soon as possible?
Love to hear it.