Marc Elias: A Constitutional Crisis Is Brewing in Pennsylvania

[Nevilledog]

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Marc E. Elias
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This is how Republicans are planning to steal elections in the future. By refusing to count lawful votes and then certifying incomplete and inaccurate results, Republicans hope to create a veneer of legitimacy around an illegitimate outcome.

democracydocket.com
A Constitutional Crisis Is Brewing in Pennsylvania
Read the latest by Marc Elias.
6:58 PM · Jul 19, 2022

https://www.democracydocket.com/news/a-constitutional-crisis-is-brewing-in-pennsylvania/

To see the future of election subversion, look at Pennsylvania today. More than a month after the most recent primary election was settled, three counties are still refusing to certify accurate results. These counties offer an unfortunate preview of what to expect in the future.

It all started simply enough at the end of 2021 when the outcome of a local judicial election in Lehigh County hinged on whether a small number of contested undated mail-in ballots would be counted. These ballots were cast by eligible voters, received on time by the county and had properly signed return envelopes. However, the return envelopes were missing a handwritten date next to the voters’ signatures. In litigation over these ballots, a federal court of appeals ruled in May that the missing dates were legally immaterial (meaning unrelated to voters’ eligibility) and ordered the mail-in ballots to be counted. A month later in June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch effort to block the ballots from being counted and the judicial race was decided.

While that case was proceeding, Pennsylvania held primary elections for the U.S. Senate on May 17. Once again, there was a close election where undated mail-in ballots were at issue. When a Republican candidate in the race filed a lawsuit to require the counting of the undated mail-in ballots, a state court, following the reasoning of the federal court’s order in the Lehigh County judicial election, ordered the mail-in ballots to be counted.

In normal times, this would be the end of the story. But we do not live in normal times.

Despite rulings from both federal and state courts and no active election dispute, two months after the election, three Republican-controlled counties — Berks, Fayette and Lancaster — continue to refuse to include the valid, undated mail-in ballots in their final 2022 primary election certification totals. Last week, Pennsylvania finally sued to force these counties to perform this simple, but vitally important, ministerial act.

*snip*


This is the most pressing danger: subversion

[TheBlackAdder]

1. You'd think there would be a 15th Amendment Section 1 violation in there somewhere.

.

Fifteenth Amendment, Section 1:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.



But, I guess they can let you vote, they just won't count your vote.

.

[Nevilledog]

2. That's exactly right.... They'll just throw out the votes they don't like.

They'll allege, without evidence, that the Philly votes are invalid.

And what the fuck are we gonna do about it? Their illegally picked winners will take office while we're protesting and using the courts. By the time it gets to the Supremes they'll just say it would be injurious to take the wrongly seated out of office.

I can see this so clearly in my mind.

[TheBlackAdder]

3. That violates the spirit of the amendment as people vote because they assume it's counted.

.

Selectively pulling a vote should be tantamount to a count of voter fraud or document destruction.

People don't vote on the premise that it could be purged at some point.

.

[Nevilledog]

5. Yeah, and? Norms and laws don't matter to these people.

Mastriano marched on the Capitol ferfucksake

[Septua]

10. "They'll allege, without evidence, that the Philly votes are invalid."

That's the part I don't understand.

Trump did the same thing, claiming invalid ballots and irregularities, went to court 60 times and lost the argument 60 times, because there was no evidence. The Democrats will go to court saying the votes are valid and the Republicans will have to show evidence that doesn't exist.

Right?

[Nevilledog]

12. SCOTUS is going to rule that certifying election is up to legislatures. It's their pick, essentiall.

They've got the case before them now.

My opinion is they're gonna go ahead and do it, without authority, figuring they're going to get away with it.

Difference with what trump did is he wasn't declared the winner.

While we're fighting it out in court they're gonna send their illegitimate picks to Congress.

[Septua]

23. Oh yeah...forgot about that.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1106866830/supreme-court-to-take-on-controversial-election-law-case

[Cosmocat]

25. 100% what is going to happen

nm

[Cha]

13. TY for the 15th Amendment

anyway even if the Zombie Magats will Disregard it..

Maybe Civil War will be Over Defending Our Constitution Over JackBoot Fascism.

Focus!
Please Fight to Save Our Democracy💙 in 2022 & 2024!

[peggysue2]

4. Mastriano has already said that if he's elected as PA's Governor, he'll do exactly this

He will determine what votes are legitimate. Or not.

This is how illiberal democracies operate. The veneer of electoral integrity is there. But scratch the surface? It's all about who's in control of the count and who remains in power. Forever.

That's why the November election is so frigging important.

Don't open the door to the vampires.

[Septua]

28. "He will determine what votes are legitimate."

So, how would that go and when? Throw out all the absentee/mail-in ballots before counting or invalidate them after the count or stop counting? Or just wait till the votes are counted, then deduct the necessary number to give the win to the Republican?

I'm visualizing a state, say Pennsylvania, being called (by the networks) for the Dem candidate at some point based on the counted votes, then the election officials saying something like "We don't believe the election was valid" and call it for the Republican candidate.

By that time, the states will have 'changed the election rules' to eliminate all the irregularities so they can't say the process was corrupt. If they declare the Rep guy winner anyhow, and whether or not they have the authority, there will be a civil war.

[SunSeeker]

6. The GOP successfully stopped counting the votes in Florida to put Bush in office. nt

[RandiFan1290]

22. and the Legislature was ready and waiting to send Bush electors if the recounts were allowed. nt

[Cha]

7. We've seen this happening in Traitorville

Magat states.. and yes Fascist Cheaters Disregarding the Will of the People like some GD Russian Dictatorship.. is our imminent Danger.

Thinking this is what could lead to Civil War.. Who's gonna let these drooling zombie assholes rule America?
Focus!
Please Fight to Save Our Democracy💙 in 2022 & 2024!

[certainot]

8. meanwhile dems, without complaint, let penn st keep supporting 11 x-limbaugh radio stations

that's probably 1/4 of the penn republican radio stations using election fraud lies for over 20 years to sell voter suppression

PENNSYLVANIA 14 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1

basically, if pitt or temple started looking for apolitical alts penn st would also have to and those stations would lose half their advertisers, and republicans would be done

[calimary]

21. There's the big mistake right there.

Last edited Wed Jul 20, 2022, 06:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Allowing the limbaugh poison to spread unabated. That may have been the beginning of the end of the American experiment.

[certainot]

30. it's fixable. maybe easily when those 87 universities start a race to dissociate from RW radio

there are a few markers pointing to that being a tipping point - reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 1987 and they got the monopoly going with 1000 or so other stations following limbaugh on his 500- 600 stations by the early 90s.

that's when the record partisanship started, ALEC finally started making big progress, and the GOP finally won congress after decades

[calimary]

33. Yep. EXACTLY correct.

Last edited Wed Jul 20, 2022, 07:01 PM - Edit history (2)

Getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time provisions delivered all this shit to America’s front doors, living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and bedrooms.

It became a media free-for-all. With NO fact checking or rebuttal of lies. The guardrails were all ripped down and thrown into a bonfire to burn up.

When I was still working, we had to be scrupulously careful to reach out to lots of different people and officials and others to get their views. Every time some VIP stopped by the station, we’d grab ‘em and do a quick ascertainment interview to fill in the blanks on a standard form for such things. Then that form had to be kept in a big book that we had to make available to ANYBODY who might want to read through it.

That book would also be kept to show proof that we were responding to the community through active outreach to community leaders to ascertain what they thought the most pressing issues facing our community were. And then, we tried to figure up public affairs programming to address those issues.

I know this because I DID those interviews. I filled in those forms. I reached out to book interviews for our public affairs programming with people who might have relevant things to say about the problems and their possible solutions, or programs designed to meet those needs. As the news director or “newslady” I coordinated regularly and often with the public affairs director to let her/him know what I was planning and scheduling for public affairs shows that were aired most often on the weekends, and to get their feedback on what else they thought I could or should do.

And I did it longer than most of my peers in the LA market, because the station(s) where I worked dared not cut out public affairs programming to “just play the hits” thanks to some serious malfeasance by the long-ago parent company and some rogue South American government WAY long before I ever hired in there. But the broadcast properties were still nervously minding their Ps and Qs and NEVER coloring outside the lines, to avoid having their precious (and obscenely lucrative) broadcast licenses yanked.

I used to joke that all that criminality saved my job, while other music-format stations were enjoying the new “freedoms” brought about by deregulation - by cutting back on news segments so they could play more of the hits. Other news departments around town were being severely cut back (or done away with entirely) but upper management where I worked didn’t dare touch me!

Which was nice, gotta say!

[OneGrassRoot]

24. Wow, thank you for this link...

It seems this would be a good avenue to pursue to fight back against the right-wing hate: pressure universities to pull their licensing deals.

[OneGrassRoot]

26. This site is brilliant...

Do you know the creator?

[certainot]

31. somewhat.... i think the email still works if you have suggestions etc....

[certainot]

32. they have no excuse not to at least have a discussion about it. protests at universities may be

very effective doing that.

maybe letters to the editor. maybe get the debate club into it.

all these unis have brand managers, PR depts (who should be concerned if it gathers steam....), diversity promotion officers, etc that can be called. calling regent offices might work depending on who answers but they might just pass it on to athletics and that's a dead end. that all have relevant student groups - environment, social justice, racism etc getting undercut nay their own unis

the cons complain the uni can't take sides, as if they didn't have a 95% monopoly and all those stations are RW. i've heard from trolls that the cons could take it to the supremes! free speech!!! etc if the university pulled off.... but all that would do is get attention to the invisible talk radio problem and scare advertisers off those stations. or the licensing is indirect, can't be changed etc. or there's too much money involved - as if those stations don't constantly advocate for defunding ed and alway oppose student debt relief.....

i'll bet one major school could get all of them scrambling, advertisers fleeing, and the radio ad industry moving fast to break up the monopoly in favor of keeping the schools on those stations.

that might of happened with the university of colorado. it was getting regular very low level complaints about broadcasting on the colorado mega limbaugh station KOA in denver. KOA had phased out some rw talk to make way for rockies and broncos along with buffs games but limbaugh was still king there. every year i dropped by CU a couple of times. after a few years visiting student groups i went back and one of the group coordinators told me they knew about it already. then KOA moved limbaugh to a lesser station.... it may have done that trying to avoid a public discussion that could have involved pro athletes too, etc. couldn't get details though.

[Orrex]

9. It's hard to believe that we're in this situation with effectively no recourse

If someone were standing on your porch, pouring out gasoline and readying a match, you'd be within your rights to take steps to stop them.

But we're watching the same thing happen nationwide and there's apparently nothing that we can credibly do to stop it.

Before someone scolds me for my lack of faith, I preemptively offer these two answers:

1. "We can mobilize and get the vote out." Sure, but Republikkkans are making sure that those votes aren't counted, so that's really not a solution.

2. "They want you to despair." No kidding. And if someone can name a credible way to stop this coordinated and well-funded assault on the nation, I'd love to hear it.

[Nevilledog]

14. I'm where you're at.

And I have no solutions.

We lucked out last time cuz there were still some principled people. We're not in the same place now. This is happening because there have been no consequences for attacks on our elections.

[ck4829]

29. Doing nothing

https://democraticunderground.com/100216759661

[Orrex]

34. Forgive my cynicism, but will those accomplish, really?

Aside from a dose of slacktivist feelgoodism, that is?

Nonviolent resistance seems to have four basic requirements:

1. The willingness to get the shit beat out of you, whether physically, legally, financially, or socially
2. The possibility of shaming the opponent into action--unlikely in the current climate
3. The willingness, if needed, to resort to violence or to let others resort to violence on your behalf
4. The willingness to die for your cause

Let me say clearly that your tone wasn't preachy, but when I've been preached at re: nonviolence, I've tended to wonder how long nonviolence would have taken to rein in the Nazis or Pol Pot or Stalin or colonial America.

When an opponent is fully willing to exterminate you, nonviolence is simply another way to help them achieve their goal.

[Cha]

11. P.S.. the Fascist Fucks are going to Take Away

our Social Security when they get all 3 Branches of Gov..

How the Hell is that going to Go Over?

Focus!
Please Fight to Save Our Democracy💙 in 2022 & 2024!

[czarjak]

15. Playing checkers with a pigeon comes to mind. Stall baby, stall!

[YoshidaYui]

16. What a

ClusterFuck.

[perfessor]

17. Going Full Stalin

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

[NBachers]

18. I'm old enough to remember the agents John & Bobby Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson sent to Southern

states where voting rights were being violated. I can remember the actions and demonstrations of the Civil Rights struggles of that era.

I believe it's time for a new Civil Rights / Voting Rights era. I also believe a Rapid Response army of US Government agents needs to be ready to quickly occupy any location where election fraud occurs, to secure the voting records and see that they're fairly and accurately counted.

[DallasNE]

19. The handwritten date is totally meaningless

A person could write anything since it is not motorized. The best solution would be to eliminate the date from the envelope. Besides, there is a process for dealing with legitimate technical issues with a ballot and that is to declare it a provisional ballot where the voter is notified to correct the issue in a set number of days in order to get it counted but this opens the door to unequal treatment of ballots.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

20. The radicalized Republican party wants total control. Democracy is in the way.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. Marc Elias was a treasure battling all the nonsense 2020 loon lawsuits here

Pennsylvania finally sued to force these counties to perform this simple, but vitally important, ministerial act.

The PA State Supreme Court is majority (D) - 5(D) - 2(R).

Am hoping if it gets that far, that they clean up that mess with those counties. Although I know Fayette is red and one of the smallest population counties in the state. Lancaster and Berks are odder as they have been sloooowwwllly going light red and have large pockets of blue (i.e. the cities of Lancaster in Lancaster County and Reading in Berks).

This is one of those cases where Democrats in many states need to get people to stop ignoring all those off-term elections where you have County officials being elected.

When the PA legislature first passed Act-77 that authorized those "no-excuse absentee mail ballots", the "trade-off" was to get rid of straight-party voting, which was apparently easier for those you have to cajole to vote in a general election.