How Pa. Democrats plan to ensure midterm election security

Pennsylvania Democrats are starting to plan for any potential election tampering by President Donald Trump or Republicans in the upcoming midterms. 

Pennsylvania Democrats are hoping to run up the score and win decisive victories in four key congressional races this fall in order to shore up the US House and prevent any election tampering by President Donald Trump or US House Republicans. 

“ We’re gonna run up to score to such a level that [US House Speaker Mike Johnson] won’t have a choice,” Eugene DePasquale, Chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, told reporters at the party’s winter state committee meeting in Harrisburg on Saturday. 

If congressional races are close following Election Day or disputed by Trump and the Republicans, Johnson has the ability to delay swearing in members, and over the past week, Johnson began echoing false statements about mail-in voting and ballots being counted following Election Day.

Last fall, Johnson waited 50 days to swear-in US House Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) after she won her special election in order to prevent her from signing onto a discharge petition forcing a vote to release the Epstein Files. 

“ We have four congressional seats to flip and we can do it with your help,” US House Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery) told state committee members. “ These are people who are lawless. They are without a conscience, without a backbone, without any sense of right and wrong.”

Afterwards, Dean shared her concerns about some of Johnson’s recent statements on mail-in voting. The Speaker claimed that Democratic victories in California appeared fraudulent after the Republican candidate lost their leads from Election Day after mail-in ballots were counted. 

Pennsylvania is a state where Republicans are typically ahead after the polls close on Election Day, but lose their leads in the days afterwards because of mail-in ballots being counted. 

Election officials in the commonwealth are not allowed to start processing mail-in ballots, or open ballots and prepare them to be counted, until 7 a.m. on Election Day, and they cannot start counting those ballots until after the polls close at 8 p.m. Republican lawmakers in the Pennsylvania legislature have refused to pass legislation widening the pre-canvassing window since they passed mail-in voting legislation in 2019.  

“ I’m very concerned about [Johnson’s] failed leadership, and what he’s doing now, renewing those false arguments, those deliberate lies. It is calculated. It is planned,” Dean said in an interview. 

“We’re just gonna beat him fair and square. He will not be able to not seat us,  but he is complicit in this serious, degrading, corrosive set of lies by the president.”

Trump, last week, cited Philadelphia and other Democratic leaning cities around the country as reasons to “nationalize” the midterm elections, which is unconstitutional. States are required by the constitution to run their elections.  

DePasquale has a simple message, and that’s to stay out of Pennsylvania. 

“ We have a governor, lieutenant governor, that know how to run the state, know how to stand up to the president and also that we know how to run our own elections,” DePasquale said 

“Pennsylvania has run some of the cleanest, most efficient elections in our country’s history. We know how to do that and Donald Trump needs to get his nose out of our election business.” 

He also offered a glimpse into how the state party is preparing for any potential election interference. 

“ We are gonna have the most vigorous voter protection effort in a midterm that this state has ever seen,” DePasquale said. 

“It’s about making sure that we have our eyes and ears on the ground from a legal team in every county so that we are protecting people at the ballot. Also part of this is getting more people to vote by mail. If you vote by mail, they can’t intimidate you at the polling place.”