I find it funny. If you read Newsmax, a right wing conservative news outlet, they are trying to say that this phone call between Trump and Raffensperger proves that the election was a fraud.
I listed to the entire call..... No way. To me, it proves that trump is committing voter fraud by attempting to force a state to "recalulate" the votes.
Listen for yourselves...
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
Georgia Senator Perdue called the whole thing disgusting.
Unfortunately he is such a troll that he is not upset at what was said but that it was recorded. What a douche.
I am interested in how trump supporters will defend this call, because they will. Are they going to say was just joking? Are they going to argue that it is his right to threaten the Georgia Secretary of State with jail time if he doesn't commit voter fraud? Are they going to be so blinded that they say he really didn't say anything bad?
Be a republican that is fine. Be a conservative, I have no issues with that. But I can't understand how anyone can continue to defend this man.
People who lack accountability think everything is an attack
they are trying to say that this phone call between Trump and Raffensperger proves that the election was a fraud.
There's a really good reason for this ... it's because they have no actual, real, factual evidence. What they have is noise. Lots and lots and lots of noise ... repeat a lie often enough and Cult of Trump will buy it and froth at the mouth.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Washington Post asks you to sign up for a subscription. So just to make it easy for anyone who wants to hear the conversation I thought I would make it as easy as possible.
He had his conspiracy theories blown out of the water. Over 50 court cases and none of them found any of his "evidence" credible. He told Georgia election officials they committed crimes and they are taking a big risk. That he would like to "find" enough votes to win Georgia. What a moron. They've already recounted the votes three times.
And people uphold this want to be dictator.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
FYI, I contacted my Bank and told them that I need to find $11,780 because they counted wrong...
I'll keep you posted!
I hope you didn't forget to tell them that THEY were the ones that committed the fraud.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
'NEVER FORGET’: Trump threatens Cotton over Electoral College certification
President Donald Trump warned Sen. Tom Cotton on Monday that Republican voters would "never forget" GOP lawmakers who fail to embrace Trump's baseless effort to contest President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.
“How can you certify an election when the numbers being certified are verifiably WRONG,” Trump tweeted. “You will see the real numbers tonight during my speech, but especially on JANUARY 6th. @SenTomCotton Republicans have pluses & minuses, but one thing is sure, THEY NEVER FORGET!”
Cotton (R-Ark.), an otherwise staunch ally of the president, announced over the weekend that he would not join nearly a dozen Senate Republicans and more than 100 House members in challenging the Electoral College results Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt at awarding Trump a second term he did not win. In his statement, Cotton dismissed the gambit, flatly noting that “objecting to certified electoral votes won’t give him a second term” and instead will backfire on Republicans.
“The Founders entrusted our elections chiefly to the states — not Congress," Cotton said. "They entrusted the election of our president to the people, acting through the Electoral College — not Congress."
Trump also lobbed a more general attack at Republicans who have disavowed the effort — a group that includes former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said it is "difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act."
“The ‘Surrender Caucus’ within the Republican Party will go down in infamy as weak and ineffective ‘guardians’ of our Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers!” the outgoing president tweeted.
The Arkansas Republican has been floated as a future presidential candidate, and the Electoral College challenge has divided the GOP at a time when it is trying to maintain its grip on the Senate majority.
Two incumbent Georgia Republicans, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, are hoping to fend off Democratic challengers in a runoff Tuesday. Both have aligned themselves closely with the president, who is scheduled to hold a rally on their behalf in Georgia later Monday. The president also recently asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Reffensperger during a private phone call to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state. A recording of the call was subsequently leaked to the media.
Trump has actively encouraged the Electoral College challenge and shortly after his warning shot at Cotton, the president tweeted quotes from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — both of whom support the effort.
Johnson defended the bid to reverse Biden’s electoral victory, arguing that Republicans cannot ignore the “legitimate concerns” about unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud put forth by Trump and his allies.
“From my standpoint, we simply cannot dismiss the concerns of tens of millions of Americans that have suspicions,” Johnson said Monday on Fox News. “What we're saying is let's delay accepting a particular state's electors until we actually investigate what the issues are in that particular state.”
And once again the deplorable gop leadership will do nothing, zilch, nada, to stop this pos potus from breaking the law. The party of law and order Pffft.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Sen. Perdue says he's 'shocked' over leaked Trump audio, calls act by fellow GOP 'disgusting'
Sen. David Perdue tore into Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday for recording a phone call with President Donald Trump over the weekend, calling it “disgusting” to do so.
“I guess I was raised differently,” Perdue, a Republican, said on Fox News. “To have a statewide elected official, regardless of party, tape without disclosing a conversation — private conversation — with the president of the United States, and then leaking it to the press is disgusting.”
Perdue also downplayed the significance of the hourlong call, in which Trump implored the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, setting off alarm bells with legal experts and lawmakers.
“I didn't hear anything in that tape that the president hasn't already said for weeks now since the November election,” he said.
The president may have opened himself to legal exposure by potentially violating federal and state statutes against soliciting of election fraud. Raffensperger on Monday said the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney may investigate the president’s actions but sidestepped whether he believed Trump’s conduct to be lawful.
“I’m not a lawyer. All I know is that we’re going to follow the law, follow the process,” Raffensperger said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Truth matters. And we’ve been fighting these rumors for the last two months.”
The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first obtained audio of the call on Sunday, and it was subsequently confirmed by POLITICO. The recording came to light after Trump lashed out at Raffensperger via tweet Sunday morning.
Perdue and fellow Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler have gone all-in with Trump as they seek to save their seats ahead of Tuesday’s run off. The pair previously called for Raffensperger to resign after the secretary of state and his office repeatedly dismissed unsubstantiated allegations of rampant voter fraud in the November election.
The president is scheduled to travel to the state Monday for a campaign rally in support of the two GOP senators. Democrats need to knock off both in the runoff to take control of the Senate.
Perdue said he will participate “virtually,” as he and his wife have been isolating after announcing Thursday that he had been in proximity to a person who had tested positive for Covid-19. Perdue said he had tested negative “repeatedly” in the days since.
“My wife and I are in good health — no symptoms,” Perdue added.
This is now the state of the Republican party. Intimidating state officials into committing real voter fraud isn't the issue. Showing the truth to the American people is the issue.
How disgusting they are.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Raffensperger: Trump could face investigation over election call
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that it was unlikely his office would open an investigation into his weekend phone call with President Donald Trump, but suggested a criminal probe could still be launched by an Atlanta-area district attorney.
Because Trump personally spoke with Raffensperger on Saturday and recently had a conversation with the chief investigator in the secretary of state’s office, Raffensperger told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview that “there may be a conflict of interest" that would inhibit any potential investigation.
But Raffensperger went on to say: “I understand that the Fulton County District Attorney wants to look at it. Maybe that’s the appropriate venue for it to go.”
A spokesperson for the office of Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis did not immediately return an email or a phone call seeking comment on Raffensperger’s remarks.
Legal experts and lawmakers have expressed alarm at Trump’s Saturday phone call with Raffensperger, during which the president pressured the secretary to “find” enough votes to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
In particular, Trump asked that officials determine that ballots were shredded in Fulton County and that Dominion election machinery was removed or tampered with. He also suggested Raffensperger could be guilty of a “criminal offense” by knowing about alleged election interference and not reporting it.
In fact, it is the president who may have opened himself up to legal liability in the phone call, potentially violating federal and state statutes intended to guard against the solicitation of election fraud.
The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first obtained audio of the call on Sunday, and it was subsequently confirmed by POLITICO. On Monday, Raffensperger declined to say whether he personally found Trump’s requests in their conversation to be lawful.
“I’m not a lawyer. All I know is that we’re going to follow the law, follow the process,” he said. “Truth matters. And we’ve been fighting these rumors for the last two months.”
Raffensperger also did not explicitly confirm reporting by The New York Times that it was staffers within his office who recorded audio of the call, and that he had instructed advisers not to release its contents unless Trump attacked state officials or misrepresented the call’s contents.
The audio was eventually leaked after the president criticized the secretary in a tweet on Sunday morning.
Despite the Times’ reporting that the White House switchboard had made 18 other calls to the secretary’s office over the past two months, Raffensperger maintained that he had never spoken to Trump prior to their conversation on Saturday.
“No, I never believed it was appropriate to speak to the president. But he pushed out — I guess he had his staff push us. They wanted to call,” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger described his office as “in a litigation mode with the president’s team against the state of Georgia. And whenever you say anything, then you do have to have your advisers there. They have to have their advisers there, with lawyers.”
Although “I just preferred not to talk to someone when we’re in litigation,” Raffensperger continued, “we took the call, and we had a conversation.”
The president “did most of the talking. We did most of the listening,” he said. “But I did want to make my points, that the data that he has is just plain wrong. He had hundreds and hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted. We found two. That’s an example of just — he has bad data.”
POLITICO also reported on Monday that Raffensperger’s advisers had recorded his call with Trump, with one of them saying that “it’s nice to have something like this, hard evidence, to dispute whatever he’s claiming about the secretary.”
After Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) allegedly pressured Raffensperger to discard some legally mailed ballots in November, “we decided maybe we should do this,” the adviser said of recording the president.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, another Republican official the president has attacked for refusing to parrot his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, also fiercely condemned Trump’s call with Raffensperger — complaining that the new controversy would distract from the state’s crucial pair of Senate runoffs on the day before the election.
“I was disappointed. You know, I was disappointed at the tone, at the intent, at the questioning. I’ve continued to encourage everybody, including the president, to stay focused on tomorrow,” Duncan told CNN on Monday.
“That phone call did absolutely nothing to help, you know, drive turnout for Republicans here in Georgia for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue,” Duncan added. Both senators are locked in tight races that will determine which party controls the chamber in the opening years of Biden’s presidency.
Asked whether the phone call should be referred for investigation by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Duncan said that while he was not a lawyer, he was “100 percent certified to tell you that it was inappropriate. And it certainly did not help the situation.”
Even Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a staunch Trump ally who plans to join a group of at least 12 Republican senators in challenging Biden’s Electoral College win, offered a negative assessment of the president’s call on Monday.
“One of the things, I think, that everyone has said is that this call was not a helpful call,” she told Fox News.
But Perdue, one of the two Republican senators on the ballot in Georgia on Tuesday, stuck by the president and promoted his criticism of Raffensperger.
“To have a statewide elected official, regardless of party, tape without disclosing a conversation — [a] private conversation — with the president of the United States, and then leaking it to the press is disgusting,” he told Fox News on Monday.
On Capitol Hill, two House Democrats wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday morning, urging him to authorize a criminal investigation of Trump’s call with Raffensperger for potential violations of federal election fraud statutes.
“As Members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,” Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) wrote. “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the President.”
The lawmakers also suggested that Trump violated Georgia laws against soliciting election fraud, and they said that if Wray agreed, he should formally refer the matter to Georgia’s attorney general or a local district attorney.
“The evidence of election fraud by Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight. The prima facie elements of the above crimes have been met,” they wrote. “Given the more than ample factual predicate, we are making a criminal referral to you to open an investigation into Mr. Trump.”
I think there are a couple of points that came out that are important to mention.
Reffensperger made it clear on GMA that he/Georgia has been/is in litigation with Trump and the Trump campaign involving the election claims. It would be highly unusual to have a conversation between named parties of a lawsuit under these circumstances. Normally the conversations would be between the lawyers, but it was noted that Trump and his team pushed for the call.
It is a bit laughable that Purdue would be upset that the conversation was recorded and transcribed. That is standard practice. The conversation was not between private parties, the conversation involved the President and the Secretary of State for Georgia acting in their duly elected capacity.
It seems as though the Trump tweet of Sunday morning prompted the release of the audio and transcript in response to continued false claims made by Trump.
I doubt that we will ever get an official White House response, but nothing in the call should surprise anyone. Trump is who we think he is.
Although there is a lot of grumbling about laws being violated, that can be addressed after January 20th. I really expect no action.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
"This is now the state of the Republican party. Intimidating state officials into committing real voter fraud isn't the issue. Showing the truth to the American people is the issue."
Re-posted this so that it didn't get lost in the lengthy article. How true, how important, and how ignored.
People who lack accountability think everything is an attack
As of yet Trump hasn't figured out that when you attack and lie about some people they will stand their ground. It's no surprise to me that in the end, they are attacking their own.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
“To have a statewide elected official, regardless of party, tape without disclosing a conversation — [a] private conversation — with the president of the United States, and then leaking it to the press is disgusting,” he told Fox News on Monday.
Same old (sad) story - as long as you don't get caught, it's OK whether legal or not. Some things just never change...
Last edited by bbrowns32; 01/05/2106:49 AM.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers...Socrates
Just think, it's OK for Trump to threaten and bully a state official to rig the election but it's apparently not ok to record the call in which that took place..
Per Purdue that is.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
Just think, it's OK for Trump to threaten and bully a state official to rig the election but it's apparently not ok to record the call in which that took place..
Per Purdue that is.
.....and per every single deplorable trump supporter on earth. Kill the messenger.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Just for the sake of anyone interested. This is only a part of an article that I find pertinent to the discussion. The rest of the article is supplied by following the link.....
According to Georgia law, Raffensperger can legally record a phone call, making criticism of the move more about party loyalty or etiquette rather than about a possible crime.
Georgia, 34 other states, and the District of Columbia, are what’s known as one-party consent states when it comes to audio recordings. Federally, the United States also allows one-party consent for phone and audio recordings.
According to law firm Matthiesen, Wicker, & Lehrer, S.C., as of October 2019, The one-party consent states in the U.S. are:
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas The District of Columbia Georgia Hawaii Idaho Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
This means that as long as one of the parties, or people, on a call are aware of being recorded, and consent, the full call is legal to record. Generally, to record a conversation, verbal or written notice is only required in some cases, usually when it involves telephone companies, not calls between individuals.
Michigan is an odd one out in terms of consent when it comes to recording, intercepting or disclosing conversations in person, electronic, or on computers without party consent. A court ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals interpreted the language of the law to only apply to third-party recording and interception, leading to some confusion as to its consent status.
Wisconsin allows for recording when a person involved in a conversation is recording it or allows a third party to record it, but the recording is not allowed for use in court in civil cases unless all parties are aware of the recording.
Only nine states in the US have two-party consent laws when it comes to audio recordings, including phone calls. The states that require all parties to consent to the recording are:
California Delaware Florida Maryland Massachusetts Montana New Hampshire Pennsylvania Washington
Still, other states have specific circumstances in their laws about recording communications that make them fall into a third, or in Vermont’s case, fourth category for consent in audio and phone recordings.
Separately, Illinois is a two- or all-party consent state when it comes to surreptitious recordings, but a one-party state for private electronic communications.
The states that fall into the “mixed” consent category are:
Colorado (Someone not present for a communication must have permission of one of the parties to record the electronic or oral conversation) Connecticut (While it’s a one-party consent state, it’s against the law to record phone calls or communications made by someone who is not the sender or intended recipient, without the consent of at least one involved party. In civil cases, violating the consent to record is a civil issue, not criminal) Nevada (It’s illegal to record private communications without one party allowing it, and all parties must consent to disclose the content of the recordings) Oregon (It’s not illegal to record a conversation if an individual who is in the conversation records it or gives someone else permission, but it’s illegal to record the conversation without the consent of anyone taking part in the communication)
Vermont is not categorized as a one- or all-party consent state because there is no state law that specifically defines rights to record or disclose recorded conversations.
If you're the president, isn't the assumption that everything you say/do is recorded somewhere? I get it, the "why did you record me" thing is just a distraction, but couldn't they have come up with something better than this.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
When that's all you have left to use, that's what you use.
What it points out to me is the total incompetence of Trump and those who surround him. First, this already happened to him on his phone call to Ukraine. Second, you would think they would know the law and that it is not only legal, but should be expected that the phone call would be recorded.
But I guess when you have already tried to bribe Ukraine to attack your political opponent and got away with it, I guess you think you can, and so far have, gotten away with anything.
And there may be more recordings to come.....
Facing pressure from Trump and constituents, Pa. GOP aims to limit expanded voting
Republicans are considering rolling back a major expansion to Pennsylvania’s voting laws — a move motivated at least in part by relentless pressure from President Donald Trump and constituents who support him.
The legislature passed the landmark expansion, Act 77, a little over a year ago with near–unanimous GOP support. It allowed no-excuse mail voting in the commonwealth for the first time in the 2020 primary and general election.
In the nearly two months since Trump lost Pennsylvania and the election, the president has taken to directly calling Republican lawmakers in states he lost and urging them to help overturn the results.
Staff for Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) confirmed he received two of those personal calls in early December. Republican Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward told the New York Times that Trump had called her, too.
Mike Straub, a spokesman for Cutler, described the conversation as “much more a history lesson about what happened in Pennsylvania law” than a direct appeal by the president for lawmakers to change Pennsylvania’s election rules.
But Straub acknowledged that in the months since the election, as Trump’s attorneys have filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits aimed at getting the results overturned, baseless allegations of widespread election fraud have been “clearly top-of-mind for many, many members [of the House GOP Caucus].”
In December, Republican members of the House and Senate filed more than dozen memos proposing election law updates. Two proposals from House members would completely get rid of no-excuse absentee voting; other plans would clarify rules around how mail ballots can be submitted and counted.
Straub says these efforts reflect that members are eager to show constituents they’re taking action on perceived security issues.
“I think their actions have shown that,” Straub said.
At least a few Republicans in the legislature have grown frustrated by their colleagues’ commitment to addressing fraud allegations — which Trump’s lawyers repeatedly failed to prove in court.
“They want to go to war,” State Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) said of some of his fellow Republicans.
Yaw recently published a long statement making it clear that while he voted for Trump twice and supported his candidacy, he sees no evidence of widespread fraud and is dismayed that “misinformed” people still believe the president won the election.
Like many General Assembly members, Yaw has been inundated with messages from constituents who want Pennsylvania’s election results overturned.
He discounts many of them, considering them to be based on bad information people probably found on social media. But he said other lawmakers might be getting spooked.
“I don’t know whether the people really believe it, or whether they’re following what they think their constituents are saying,” he said in an interview. “Some of the constituents are … very threatening, actually: ‘You either do it my way or it’s the last time you’ll ever get elected.’”
With President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory secure, tweaks to the state election code can be a way for lawmakers to appease frustrated constituents.
In a memo calling for the state to completely scrap no-excuse mail voting, Rep. Jim Gregory (R-Blair), explained his rationale for reversing course on Act 77. “When the legislature planned to implement mail-in voting, no one could have imagined the gross overstepping of the [Wolf] administration,” he wrote.
Many in the GOP criticize Wolf, his Department of State, and the Democratic-controlled state Supreme Court for interpreting Act 77 more broadly than Republicans intended — for instance, allowing counties to tally ballots with missing dates or misplaced signatures, and giving voters a three-day extension to turn in ballots due to mail delays.
Wolf dismissed these claims, which included calls for DOS Secretary Kathy Boockvar to resign after the election, as attempts “to undermine confidence in the results of the election.”
“We should all denounce them for the undemocratic actions they are,” he said.
Short of a full reversal, one planned package of GOP-led bills would implement new security measures, like unique barcodes on ballots. It would also tighten Act 77 to formally ban several practices that Pennsylvania courts ruled were permissible in the 2020 election: the executive and judicial branches of government wouldn’t be able to give voters extra time to submit ballots; election officials would be barred from counting ballots with misplaced or incomplete signatures; and they couldn’t implement ballot drop boxes and temporary satellite election offices.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Centre), who has significant power over which bills the chamber considers, has also pitched a new “Special Committee on Election Integrity” — a bipartisan panel that he says will examine election security and rules. He noted in his memo that lawmakers have heard from “thousands of constituents” concerned about the election, and pledged that the caucus will address lawmakers’ bills on the subject.
One lawmaker hoping for specific reforms is State Sen. Pat Stefano (R-Fayette). He supported the Act 77 expansions, and as far as he’s concerned, repealing no-excuse mail voting is a non-starter because “the horse is out of the barn.”
Instead, he wants to get rid of a portion of the act that lets voters sign up to automatically receive a mail ballot application for every election. He thinks people signed up by accident, got confused, and tried to vote the wrong way.
“The intention was noble, but the execution was poor and the results were horrible,” he said — referring to the striking number of duplicate ballot applications from confused voters Pennsylvania had to reject.
Like many legislative Republicans, Stefano was dismayed by court rulings that allowed remote drop boxes and looser mail ballot deadlines in light of widespread, pandemic-induced postal service delays, and wants those provisions barred.
But like Yaw, he thinks some of his colleagues have been pushed by constituents who are taking increasingly extreme positions. That, he said, is “what social media does. The algorithms drive people to see things they like, which makes them believe things. Doesn’t mean it’s true.”
But, he added, that doesn’t take away the obligations that politicians feel in a representative democracy.
“We are elected by our constituents in the district. So if a large group of them is asking for something, we will respond,” he said. “That’s why you’ll see … my colleagues from different districts submitting different ideas. I think that’s wonderful.”
Across the political aisle, Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny), says he’s been watching with concern as Republicans file their memos for the new session.
“I think [these GOP proposals are] in response to the unfounded claims beginning at the top, with our president,” he said. “I believe they feel a need to speak to their base of voters that they’re taking steps to try to address what they’re raising as concerns. It’s all meritless though.”
Democrats have filed a number of their own Act 77 tweaks.
Like the GOP delegation, they largely want to get rid of ambiguities that have arisen in the law. They’ve circulated legislation that would make clear that mail ballots can be counted if they’re received up to three days after Election Day. Democrats also want to let counties tally early ballots as they come in, enact in-person early voting and allow same-day voter registration through Election Day.
Democrats in the House and Senate don’t have much power to override Republicans or push their own election law priorities. But they do have a bulwark in Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who has two years left in his final term and has made clear he won’t sign off on any major Act 77 rollbacks.
In a statement, a spokeswoman noted that turnout in the Nov. 3 election “exceeded turnout in every presidential election since at least 1960, with more than 6.9 million Pennsylvanians voting by mail ballot or in person at the polls.”
The governor, she said, “does not support, and would veto, any effort by the General Assembly to make it more difficult for eligible voters to exercise their right to vote.”
Khalif Ali, the executive director of the nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause PA, said he’s already preparing for some fraught months as lawmakers hash out their differences.
Common Cause has supported Act 77 since its inception, but Ali says it’s not flawless. He too would like to see parts of the law clarified.
He errs on the side of making it easier to vote — he prefers drop boxes to be made permanent, for instance, and thinks the state could offer more education on annual mail-voting options, instead of getting rid of Act 77’s provision to automatically send out ballots.
“There’s no question that the changes in Act 77 primarily facilitated [2020’s] unprecedented turnout,” he said.
He added that despite these points of contention, there’s plenty of room for negotiation between Republicans and Democrats. But there needs to be common ground for talks to be fruitful, and he thinks Trump — from his fraud claims to his personal calls to lawmakers — has made good-faith compromises harder to reach.
“Democracy is becoming a nuisance, is becoming an irritant to individuals and parties trying to achieve a particular outcome,” he said. “Democracy is not a nuisance.”
