Barrett could shake up how ballots are counted in Pa.
If you’ve been procrastinating about returning your mail-in ballot, knowing that you have a three-day cushion for it to be received after the election, you’re taking a big risk.
As of today, ballots will be counted if mailed by Election Day — Nov. 3 — and received by your county elections office by Nov. 6.
But that could change with Monday’s confirmation of AmyConey Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court is considering a request from the Pennsylvania Republican Party to overturn the three-day extension for mail ballots to be received. The court rejected the same request last week, but only because it lacked a ninth vote and deadlocked 4-4.
On Friday, the Republicans asked the court to consider the issue again, and do it quickly. If it does, with Barrett on board, I fear that will be bad news for Pennsylvania voters.
She’s President Donald Trump’s nominee, and Trump, without evidence, has bashed mail voting as ripe for fraud.
So prepare for the possibility the three-day extension could be shot down, and return your mail ballot now.
With only six days until Election Day, you already are gambling that it would be delivered by then if you put it in the mail. Consider delivering it in person at one of the ballot drop boxes across the region. There are five in Lehigh County and four in Northampton County. Their locations are at the end of this column.
If you received a mail ballot and haven’t returned it because you decided you want to vote in person, you can do that, too. Take your incomplete mail ballot, along with both return envelopes, to your polling place on Election Day and surrender them. You then can vote there.
It’s not uncommon for ballots to be counted if they are received after Election Day. About 20 states allow it, with Illinois accepting them up to 14 days after. Pennsylvania’s three-day extension is different from other states, though, and that’s why it is in danger of being overturned.
The Nov. 6 deadline isn’t written into the state election law, which says ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The extension was granted last month by the state Supreme Court, which ruled the extra time was necessary because of likely mail delays.
This summer, I objected to an extension as Democrats lobbied for one and Republicans rejected the idea. I wrote that I didn’t consider a cushion to be necessary if voters would take the responsibility to obtain and return their ballot promptly.
I changed mymind when it was revealed how the U.S. Postal Service, run by one of Trump’s buddies, was slowing mail delivery by removing mailboxes and sorting equipment and making other changes. And Trump for once came clean and made it crystal clear that he wanted that to occur. He admitted he was blocking funding for the Postal Service in an attempt to stop mail voting.
This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Anyone can vote by mail but because Democrats are using the system much more frequently, Republicans are fighting the delivery extension.
As of Friday, more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans had been approved for a mail or absentee ballot, 1,864,361 to 739,511, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. And more than three times as many Democrats as Republicans had returned their ballots, 1,023,402 to 293,318.
I don’t understand why the state Republicans are so adamant against the ballot deadline extension. After all, it was the Republican-controlled state Legislature, with bipartisan support, that passed the law last year that enacted mail voting.
You’d think they would take pride in it and want it to succeed. And with the mail system such a mess, more time is necessary for that to happen.
Perhaps the state GOPfeels obligated to bow to the demands of the White House (as Trump likely has to win Pennsylvania to be reelected). That would be sad.
About half of the state’s approved mail ballots, about 1.5 million, had not been returned as of Friday. That’s concerning with so little time left to return them.
I hope people aren’t being lazy and counting on that three-day cushion. Because if the new Supreme Court justice pops that cushion, many votes may not be counted.