After all the problems, both claimed and real, that occurred during the 2020 election, one would think every state would have worked out all the kinks by now.
Sadly, that is not the case, and one of the most critical battleground states in the Blue Wall is again claiming that we may not have election results on the night of the election.
Talking Points…
- 2020 election problems
- PA warns results may not be available
- Analysis
There were many issues in the 2020 election, both real and imagined. Most of them were investigated, and most of them showed some issues, but not nearly the issues that were claimed by Donald Trump and his surrogates.
For instance, after a six-month review in Arizona, Biden's victory grew by 306 votes. In Georgia, Biden still won, but his margin of victory was lowered by about 1,000 votes. In Michigan, the investigative committee led by Republicans found no widespread issues, with no support for Donald Trump's voter fraud claims in the state. In Nevada, where Biden won by more than 33,000 votes, of all the complaints filed, there were less than a dozen questionable ballots. Biden's win was confirmed in Pennsylvania, but some cases are still pending.
While there were some issues, they were clearly not nearly as bad as Trump made them out to be. Yes, I realize there are plenty of people reading this who will not agree with that statement. Just keep in mind that the investigative committees that were run in these states all had Republicans on their boards, and they all came up empty.
That aside, one of the most significant problems was waiting so long for election results to be finalized. We all went to bed thinking that Trump won the election, but over the next several days, early voting and absentee ballots handed the win to Biden. That was largely because Republicans discouraged voters from using these methods, so Democrats had the overwhelming majority of votes on this front.
In many other states, early voting can be counted before election day. That is not the case in Pennsylvania. Ballots cannot be counted until 7 a.m. the morning of the election. So, while other states can get a running start, PA has to process all the early ballots along with the ballots that are coming in on election day, which generally creates a delay in processing.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, is sending out warning messages now to not expect PA to be ready with final results on election night. Schmidt explained:
"The terminology is normally called pre-canvasing. Plenty of other states allow the county boards to begin that process in advance of Election Day, whether it's three days or seven days or however long.
"But in Pennsylvania, counties can only begin that process at 7 a.m. on election morning."
Considering Pennsylvania's importance in this election, Republicans are already ringing the bell. You know, if Trump is ahead early, and Harris takes the lead overnight, it is going to create some issues that will result in claims of voter fraud again. Scott Pressler, a conservative activist leading a grassroots effort to get Republicans to register and vote early in Pennsylvania, stated:
"It is baloney that Florida, which has more citizens, Texas, which has more citizens and more voters by millions, are able to have their elections counted all in one day. But Pennsylvania is not."
PA is one of only seven states that prohibit pre-canvassing under state law. Again, though, this was never an issue until the 2020 election, when just about every state that had delayed results ended up declaring Joe Biden the winner. With more than one million mail-in ballots cast in the 2022 election, we can expect a large number for the 2024 election.
I have looked at the 2020 election from every angle, and I don't believe that Trump won. However, I do believe there was some fraud, which the investigations proved. I have always maintained that a federal election is virtually impossible to fix via fraud, and I consider this a problem that needs to be fixed to ensure that local elections are on the up and up.
Having said that, the numbers coming in so late and so one-sided is bad optics, but Republicans have only themselves to blame for that in 2020. The RNC and the Trump campaign were both adamant with voters that they should only vote in person in 2020, and that is what they did, which is why Democrats dominated mail-in voting. This time, it has been different, with Republicans now making a concentrated effort to have voters take advantage of early and mail-in voting if it helps them get their vote cast. Will it work to swing the tide? Well, we will find out in about two months.
