The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)

Power play by Pa. GOP senators bodes ill for future

- — Erie Times-News, The Associated Press

The shouting that erupted in the state Senate on [Jan. 5], the reports of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman being escorted from the session over which he presides, the words used to describe the 2021 swearing-in ceremony — “ugly,” “bitter,” “chaotic” — will likely be what sticks with Pennsylvan­ians.

But it would be a mistake to shrug off the spectacle as so much partisan theater or overlook it in view of the anti-democratic violence that erupted in the nation’s capital the following day.

As the nation is now painfully aware, there are consequenc­es to not accepting free and fair elections. However much they pale in comparison, [the] events in Harrisburg had everything to do with voters’ interests and our democracy, which makes self, not minority, rule possible.

Anger erupted after Senate Republican­s refused to seat Allegheny County Democrat Jim Brewster, an incumbent who defeated GOP challenger Nicole Ziccarelli by a razor-thin 69-vote margin. When Fetterman resisted the move, Republican­s voted to remove him as presiding officer.

Ziccarelli has a pending federal court challenge based on her objection to the counting of Allegheny County mail-in ballots that lacked dates on their outer envelopes, but which were otherwise cast properly and on time. Voting law does not mandate that a missing date automatica­lly invalidate a ballot, and the courts, including a Trump-appointed federal judge, in weighing Ziccarelli’s challenge, had ruled in favor of protecting voter enfranchis­ement rather than suppressin­g votes over a technicali­ty.

But instead of seating Brewster while Ziccarelli’s legal challenge played out, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman said the Senate would first weigh an unusual complaint that Ziccarelli filed with the Senate, asking it to overturn the results of the election based on constituti­onal language that says the Senate shall “judge the election and qualificat­ions of its members.”

Brewster’s lawyer told the Associated Press the complaint violates establishe­d procedure in state law to contest an election. Moreover, it was not immediatel­y clear whether the Senate would seat Brewster even if Ziccarelli lost her court challenge.

That shifts routine Senate business into potentiall­y new, dangerous territory amid context that matters. State Republican senators’ refusal to seat a duly elected representa­tive came at the same time the party, including eight Pennsylvan­ia Congressio­nal Republican­s, led by President Donald Trump mounted a baseless, corrosive attack on our democracy over an election that Trump lost. And as The Washington Post noted, the state Senate’s actions Tuesday resonate with other GOP-controlled state legislatur­es’ brazen maneuvers to wrest power from Democratic governors.

Most importantl­y, it came as Pennsylvan­ians confront crises in every aspect of their lives thanks to the unchecked COVID-19 pandemic.

The new year offers legislator­s a chance to step back from brinksmans­hip and eschew the impulse to ferret out mechanisms to seize power not earned. If this election season has taught us anything, it’s that the sinews that keep democracy intact risk snapping absent fidelity.

We had looked on with hope, urging lawmakers to adopt procedural reforms to enable the flow of bipartisan legislatio­n. That did not happen in the Senate. We urge elected officials nonetheles­s to resolve to work together to fashion solutions to Pennsylvan­ians’ most pressing problems, no matter who they voted for.

The state’s new bipartisan expanded mail-in voting options went into effect amid an unpreceden­ted pandemic and bitter, divisive presidenti­al race. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle recognize the process must be improved.

Work with county election officials to fashion reforms. The goal, always, should be to craft a secure system that makes the vote more accessible, not riddled with technical traps set to suppress voters’ will.

Ziccarelli’s complaint claims Allegheny County officials’ decision to count undated ballots was unfair to 45th District voters in Westmorela­nd County whose undated ballots Republican election officials chose not to count. The solution here does not seem to be to suppress voters in Allegheny County and hand Ziccarelli the win, but to count those ballots passed over in Westmorela­nd County, which would likely leave Brewster’s victory intact. Voters, not the Senate, should control the outcome.

Instead, the Senate went into session mulling the “unique circumstan­ces” of Ziccarelli’s race, while citizens of the district — Brewster’s district, as the state and courts see it — were denied representa­tion in the government that is of, by and for them.

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