Why is Election Integrity So Elusive in Pennsylvania?
By Rep. Milou Mackenzie (R-Lehigh/Montgomery/Northampton)
Pennsylvania’s roughly 13 million citizens just lived through a very strange and confusing post-election day experience. Many of us had gotten used to the idea Pennsylvania was going to be at the epicenter of the presidential election whirlwinds. We were a very important “swing state” that could determine the fate of the nation after all! But then something else happened that no one could have predicted; there was one race that had yet to be settled.
Poor Bob Casey! He wasn’t prepared for the possibility of a loss on Nov. 5. And his supporters weren’t either. They immediately dug in their heels and scrambled around shamelessly counting votes that, according to the PA Supreme Court, could not legally be counted!
The most egregious example of this was played out on national television when a Bucks County commissioner spoke the quiet part out loud and said she felt justified in breaking the law to help someone on her team! Voters everywhere found this shocking and cause for alarm. Sadly, this was just another occasion where the good name and reputation of Pennsylvania got dragged through the mud on the national stage.
And where was Gov. Josh Shapiro in the midst of all of this drama? He was nowhere to be seen. Not a peep or a whimper from the good governor! And the indication was that he might be alright with the counting of illegal votes! But then came the re-emphasis from the court. The law was the law! So Josh Shapiro, our former attorney general, gave in and admitted that he would stand by that opinion, but not before offering an excuse for the would-be law breakers, claiming they were “confused” in some way that was the Legislature’s fault.
So, do we really need to wonder why election integrity is so elusive in Pennsylvania? There seems to be many reasons… From the governor and Democrat House majority refusing to allow voter ID to become a law in PA, to flawed software and malfunctioning voting machines, and now law-defying people counting our votes. Unless we have people in power who actually care about fair, smooth-running, and honest elections in the Commonwealth, nothing will change. Gov. Shapiro, who holds the most power of anyone in Pennsylvania, could bring about the needed change. He still has two more years in office, so let’s see what steps he takes.
Poor Bob Casey…. It might have been a bitter pill for him to swallow, but he did concede. The recount was halted, saving the taxpayers a million dollars. As a state lawmaker, I will continue to fight for voter ID and other commonsense policies that protect the integrity of our elections and every single legal vote cast in the Commonwealth.
Representative Milou Mackenzie
131st Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Will Jones
717.260.6615
WJones@pahousegop.com
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