Elections shaping up to become major issue in Legislature

HARRISBURG » Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania who are still questioning without basis the validity of the Nov. 3 election are drafting a boatload of voting-related legislation, with top Democrats quickly accusing them of setting up a sham process and undermining faith in elections.

While top Republicans vowed to make a major initiative out of addressing what they deem to be problems arising from the election, Democrats said election officials and poll workers in every county executed a free, fair and secure election “with the utmost integrity.”

Democrats also say Republicans should have simply allowed counties to process mail-in ballots before Election Day, the counties’ top request to help them manage the election.

Meanwhile, 75 Republicans in Pennsylvania’s Legislature, including House Speaker Bryan Cutler and Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, signed a statement Friday urging members of Congress to block

Pennsylvania’s electoral votes from being cast for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.

That outcome is “extremely unlikely,” said Derek Muller, a University of Iowa law professor who specializes in election law, because, at minimum, it would require the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives to vote to block Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said in a statement from his office that he “will not be objecting to Pennsylvania’s slate of electors” while state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, called Republicans “hostages of their own misinformation campaign” while they try to save their political careers from primary challengers.

While Republicans expanded their numbers in the Legislature in Nov. 3’s election, President Donald Trump has baselessly claimed that he lost Pennsylvania — and the presidency — to Biden only because of election fraud.

Republicans have hardly disputed Trump’s claims and, in some cases, have amplified them and sought in court to block certification of Biden’s victory.

No state or county election official or prosecutor in Pennsylvania has raised evidence of widespread election fraud in the state, and Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Department of Justice has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s fraud claims have been thrown out of courts in Pennsylvania.

Republicans, who will control both chambers again when the new twoyear session starts in January, have already issued more than a half-dozen memos to their colleagues about forthcoming legislation stemming from the election.

One bill would even repeal Pennsylvania’s expansive year-old mail-in balloting law.

They will push to pass something before the May 18 primary election, although getting it signed into law will depend on bringing aboard Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.