Ari Mittleman and Joseph Sabino Mistick: The truth about our elections

Investigations, more than a dozen federal and state court rulings, and legally required state audits of ballots from Pennsylvania counties have found no evidence of widespread fraud, irregularities or other election problems that could have affected the results of the 2020 elections.

Yet, nearly two years later, the recounts and audits of that race continue, driven by a relentless campaign to stoke suspicion and distrust in our election system.

A Pennsylvania state Senate committee hired an out-of-state company, with no apparent experience in investigating or auditing elections, to conduct yet another election audit. The audit has been stalled by legal disputes over whether the committee and its outside contractor should get access to personal information, including driver’s license and partial Social Security numbers, for every Pennsylvania voter.

Just this summer, pressured by activists claiming the 2020 election was stolen, Butler County had its elections staff spend 170 hours reviewing a sampling of 2020 election ballots. Its findings: no inaccuracies in the count. Yet the county left open the possibility of additional sampling after the November 2022 election.

Just weeks ago, 23 months after the 2020 election, a majority of Lycoming County commissioners voted to conduct a hand-count of the presidential and state attorney general elections (notably, the elections for state treasurer and auditor general, each won by a Republican candidate, were not part of the recount.) The intent, according to the commissioners, is to respond to ongoing allegations of voter fraud.

While the 2020 election, like a zombie, cannot be put rest, a new specter approaches: the threat of a long drawn-out 2022 midterm election.

The 2022 primary brought new challenges in Pennsylvania. Another legal dispute arose over whether to count mail-in ballots that were received on time but not dated by the voter. Despite instructions from the state to count the ballots, Lancaster, Berks and Fayette counties refused to certify the results of the primary election that included such undated but timely mail-in ballots. The counties certified the results only after being ordered to do so in August by a state court, which ruled that the failure of voters to include a date was immaterial, and not counting the vote violated the federal Voting Rights Act if the ballot had arrived on time. But the ruling was appealed to the state Supreme Court, adding uncertainty to the general election.

Other lawsuits have been filed in Pennsylvania ahead of the general election. One contested the right of counties to allow voters to correct errors on their mail-in ballots before Election Day to ensure their votes will be counted. Another, brought by Republican state legislators, challenged the Pennsylvania law that authorized mail-in ballots. Ironically, 11 of the 14 legislators suing to overturn the law actually voted for it.

To complicate the 2022 election still more, more than 1.3 million mail ballots have been requested by Pennsylvania voters this year, with more than 730,000 already returned by Oct. 27 and more to come in before the deadline. While the number of mail-in ballots will not reach the 2020 presidential year level, it will still be significant. Since the state prohibits counties from preparing mail-in ballots for counting before the morning of election day, it is expected that vote counts in some counties will not be completed on election night and could continue for days. A similar delay in 2020 gave rise to unsubstantiated allegations of irregularities and fraud. We can expect the same to happen again.

All that spells potential uncertainty at best and chaos at worst for next week’s election. It’s been recently reported that former President Trump and his allies are preparing to aggressively challenge elections in Pennsylvania and elsewhere when a winner is not declared on election night. It would be both a replay of 2020 and a dress rehearsal for 2024.

In the face of these potential threats, all responsible Pennsylvanians who value our democracy and view the right to vote as sacred have an important responsibility. We must speak out against any false or unsubstantiated claims about the election, call for patience to allow every vote to be counted and defend the result once all the votes are tallied, regardless of whether that result favors their party or not.

Ari Mittleman is executive director of Keep Our Republic, a national civic education nonprofit. Joseph Sabino Mistick is an associate professor of law at the Kline School of Law at Duquesne University and a Tribune-Review columnist.