SCOTUS Requires Ballots to be Received by Nov. 3 in WI and VA, but not PA or NC. Why?

 I am not an attorney. I don't play one on TV, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

But I do pay some attention to election law. Experience in 35 congressional campaigns (House and Senate) over 25 years will focus the mind. I was even nominated by President Clinton to a GOP seat on the Federal Election Commission (that's a story for another post). So, I know a thing or two.

Some of my fellow Pennsylvanians may be perplexed by Supreme Court "stays" and decisions involving various state deadlines for the receipt of mail-in ballots. In Wisconsin, SCOTUS said the ballots must arrive by election day, Same for Virginia, thanks to a clause in Virginia's Constitution (article 1, sec. 7) written by none other than George Mason.

But not Pennsylvania or North Carolina. Why? Twice now, we in Pennsylvania been denied intervention by the Supreme Court to enforce Election day as Nov. 3rd, when all ballots should have arrived in county election bureaus.

That is because Article 1, Sec. 1, paragraph 4 of our wonderful US Constitution gives state legislatures the right to set the time and manner of elections. You can look it up.

Virginia's founders and Wisconsin's legislators have done a far better job than their counterparts in NC and PA on this matter. PA's constitution is so poorly written, and it's election laws so vague, that they give the courts a role in determining election law. No matter that Congress has the ultimate authority to establish "Election Day."

So, blame your local legislators - and I blame mine, St. Sen. Tom Killion, and St. Rep. Chris Quinn - for their failure to fix election law in our state. I get that it wasn't a problem before our execrable Gov. Tom Wolf and Democrats who control our State Supreme Court decided to rewrite state law. It's because they could.

As a result, election day is now Friday, Nov. 6th in PA. That's when you can return by mail your unpostmarked, unsigned ballots to county election bureaus. It's even worse in North Carolina (9 days after the election). The invitation to vote fraud is now wide open in our state, and my two legislators (and others) may lose because of it.

This is an open invitation to election fraud, and in my view, a violation of the 14th Amendment equal protection clause of the Constitution. Like I said, I'm no lawyer. But I know fairness and justice, and we do not have it in PA.

LAW.LIS.VIRGINIA.GOV

Constitution of Virginia - Article I. Bill of Rights