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The ink was barely dry on Gov. Tom Wolf's veto of Pennsylvania's Voter Rights Protection Act, and the political press releases began rolling in.
Not surprisingly, the folks well to the left of center hailed the veto as a victory, while those who supported passage saw the veto as a threat to democracy.
We suspect that most people who knew what the proposed law actually says would find it not only tolerable, but sensible in the wake of the 2020 general election.
It's not about whether there was widespread election fraud.
There was not.
Or whether Donald Trump won Pennsylvania.
He did not.
But there's a reason that 74% of Pennsylvanians are asking for election reform, and it is not because of conspiracy theories or fear the bogeyman stole their votes.
Plain and simple, the sudden changes necessitated by COVID-19 can ultimately threaten the security of future elections, and the voters are losing faith in a system that opens the door to potential fraud down the road.
The folks who are today decrying the cost of implementing the requirements of the bill are the same ones who have no problem spending taxpayer dollars on other proposals, which like this one, will improve elections, not magically stop people from voting.
The provisions that are so offensive to the governor and his cronies are simple, and sensible:
5 Require every voter to present ID at the polls (you know, like you have to do for dozens of other everyday activities in life; there would be no cost to obtain one).
5 Allow counties to begin processing and counting mail ballots five days before Election Day.
5 Create six days of in-person early voting, beginning after the 2024 presidential election. This is an expansion of voting opportunities.
5 Allow mail ballot drop boxes for seven days before Election Day. Why would anyone object to this?
5 Move the voter registration deadline to 30 days before Election Day from 15 -- in line with residency and eligibility requirements already in the law.
5 Move the deadline for requesting mail ballots to 15 days before Election Day from seven (to give overwhelmed counties, as we saw in 2020, time to respond to these requests before election day).
5 Allow voters to fix -- or "cure" -- mail ballots with missing signatures. This is an accountability provision we all should agree on.
5 Ban counties from accepting private donations for election administration (because neither the founder of Facebook nor the Koch brothers should be picking and choosing who gets electoral aid).
If you can explain to us why these are bad ideas, or how any of these would prevent one legal voter from casting a ballot, we'd love to hear about it.
In the meantime, we can only hope that 34 legislators and five state senators have the wherewithal to change their vote, allowing an override of Tom Wolf's veto.