P&C review Pigweed’s most recent pale ale, then discuss voting laws. Are the “one-time” accommodations to the pandemic going to change things permanently?
The last election was weird. Mail-in (late) ballots. Ballots mailed to everyone on the roles. Votes counted after election day.
Both sides recognize there’s cause for some sort of clean-up, but we have different visions of what that should be. There’s (so far) a federal approach, and a state (GA) approach.
P&C weigh in, discussing the role of the federal and the state governments, and how we balance keeping things local vs. national standards.
QUOTE: The last election was weird. Mail-in (late) ballots. Ballots mailed to everyone on the roles. Votes counted after election day.
What’s weird? Typically, most states don’t start counting mail-in ballots until Election Day, and 22 states, including 12 won by Trump in 2016, accept postmarked mail-in ballots after Election Day. As well, prior to 2020, 5 states mailed ballots to all on their vote roles, largely without issue. Historically, it seemed Republicans were the primary benefactors of mail-in ballot practices.
That said, during a highly contagious pandemic, that killed hundred of thousands, it seemed reasonable to use mail-in ballots to ensure all eligible Americans were able to safely exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Interesting article from the Capital-Star featuring Pennsylvania Rep. Seth Grove (R) on election hearings, voter fraud, and the future of reform in PA.
https://www.penncapital-star.com/civil-rights-social-justice/capital-star-qa-rep-seth-grove-on-election-hearings-voter-fraud-and-the-future-of-reform-in-pa/
Below is a rather revealing excerpt…
Capital Star (C-S): Was there election fraud in 2020?
Seth Grove (SG): Yes, there was. They have confirmed cases of election fraud.
C-S: Who committed that fraud in Pennsylvania?
SG: Right, Republicans. But it’s still election fraud. It doesn’t matter who [commits] it. We don’t want that fraud to occur. And to say there wasn’t any is a lie. Now, I will say there’s not like this mass amount of fraud, that’s going to shift hundreds of thousands of votes. But there was election fraud. We have had repeated, repeated election fraud in this commonwealth for decades.
SG: You can’t give every single Republican that blanket, saying ‘every Republican out there was saying fraud.’ Never once have I ever said there’s 200,000 more ballots than registered voters in this Commonwealth. I’ve never said there are all these deceased voters out there. I’ve always seeked the truth.
C-S: But members, such as yourself, did not publicly call out these lies. In a single tweet, I believe you did. And these lies were allowed to propagate. And that created the uncertainty in the 2020 election that you are now attempting to solve.
SG: I can’t help people believe everything on the internet. There are a lot of bad accusations out there. We did our due diligence to try to address them when members had questions.