One news item that has been on the front pages of many papers over the summer was the election in Venezuela. President Nicolás Maduro declared himself the victor in July’s election, even though exit polls showed opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia having won twice as many votes. Maduro has been Venezuela’s President since 2013, and since then, has established a corrupt, authoritarian government that has impoverished this oil-rich economy.
The similarity between Maduro and Donald Trump is noteworthy. Both men have created an environment where their respective country’s citizens have lost confidence in the electoral process. In Venezuela, only 26% of its citizens have any confidence that elections in the country are run honestly – down from over 60% from the early 2007; while a CNN poll conducted in 2022 found that 48% of Americans think it is likely that in the near future, the results of a US election will be overturned.
Significant Republican distrust in the system was sowed in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when the early count of votes in swing states such as Pennsylvania seemed to indicate that Donald Trump had won. Pennsylvania, however, had recently enacted Act 77, which allowed for mail-in voting without an excuse. Mail-in voting placed an additional strain on the system because those ballots cannot be counted until the morning of Election Day.
Pre-canvassing, which would allow workers to count mail-in ballots as they become available, would alleviate such a delay. In May, a bill that would have allowed for an additional week of pre-canvassing ahead of Election Day advanced off of the Pennsylvania House floor. That bill, however, has stalled in the Republican Pennsylvania Senate because there is no Voter ID amendment attached to it.
Regardless of the pros and cons of requiring voter identification at the ballot box, there appears to be bi-partisan agreement that pre-canvassing would add a layer of confidence to the electoral process. This is the layer of confidence that Republicans are unwilling to include in this year’s election, thereby ensuring some level of discontent among the electorate. Let’s hope that Republican inaction does not resort to violence. In the meantime, voting for Democrats will help to ensure that laws are in place to increase confidence in future elections, and here’s what you can do to make that happen.
Canvass:
Sunday (September 8): There will be a canvass for Anna Payne and Ashley Ehasz. Anna has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, the Transport Workers Union, and Planned Parenthood. You can register here.
Phone Bank:
Phone bank for Elizabeth Moro in the comfort of your own home next Thursday, September 12, from 4 – 6pm. Elizabeth has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, PSEA, SEIU, and the Climate Cabinet. Her opponent, incumbent Craig Williams, has a Climate Cabinet Action score of 8% and a National Rifle Association score of 67%. If you are interested in phone banking for Elizabeth, you can sign up here.
Thanks,
Coleman
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