Republicans see Pennsylvania as their backstop for a Trump "win," if not electorally, then in the Supreme Court, and they've engineered it in every way that they could to limit the vote. That meant the massive mail-in vote they knew was coming because of coronavirus would have to be dealt with. They started by refusing to pass legislation authorizing counties to start the processing of mailed-in ballots before Election Day.
The state's counties pushed for the legislation, a change in the law to account for the slam they knew they would be getting in processing these ballots. Not only could they not canvass them before Tuesday, they can't canvass them before the polls close. Pennsylvania voters returned 2,506,557 mail ballots as of end of day Monday (1,641,825 of them cast by Democrats as opposed to 586,336 by Republicans). County officials, in pressing for the approval to start the counting early argued that it could take days to process the millions of ballots and be confident in projecting a winner in the presidential race.
Might as well be prepared. If Trump attempts to stop the vote counting, we need to take to the streets. The Protect the Results coalition has been preparing for this by organizing hundreds of post-election events across the country. Click here to find, and RSVP for, the Count Every Vote rally near you.
As planned, the Republicans have been fighting in the courts, losing at the Supreme Court which ruled that mailed-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by Friday can still be counted. Trump has been raising hell about that, including coming damned close to inciting violence, tweeting last night that the decision "is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!" That earned a flag from Twitter, warning that its contents "might be misleading about an election or other civic process."
The 5-3 Supreme Court decision had the three conservative dissenters—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—flirting with taking the case back up after Election Day when Republicans are expected to bring suit again should Trump need to fuck with Pennsylvania to keep his electoral hopes alive. That led the state to order mail ballots postmarked on Election Day that arrive after Tuesday to be segregated, in case the Supreme Court rules they have to be invalidated.
"They did a very bad thing for this state. They did a very bad thing for this nation," Trump said Monday in a rally outside Scranton. "You have to have a date. You can't extend dates. The danger that could be caused by that extension, and especially when you know what goes on in Philadelphia, and it's been going on for years." He vowed "We're going to go in the night of—as soon as the election is over—we're going in with our lawyers." The Republican Commissioner of Lancaster County is playing along, saying he will refuse to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day until there's a Supreme Court ruling.
Pennsylvania Republicans also brought suit in federal court Tuesday morning, against Montgomery County officials who they allege started counting before Tuesday. The county is suburban Philadelphia and largely Democratic. They allege that in the process of contacting people with flawed returned ballots—no signature, no secrecy envelope—to allow them to correct their ballots, they were counting ballots. Kelly Cofrancisco, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County, said its process is "sound and permissible under the Election Code." A hearing is expected to be held later Tuesday.
Expect a lot more Pennsylvania shenanigans from team Trump before the day, the week, the month is out. That is unless all the other states step in to make it moot, Trump loses, and everyone in Pennsylvania has their vote counted.
So, you know what to do. Get out the vote. Humiliate Donald Trump. Win the Senate. And protect your vote, especially if you're in a battleground state.