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Pa. primary showcases 2020 wildcards: Coronavirus and voting by mail

How do you campaign in time of coronavirus? Why can't the GOP embrace vote-by-mail?

  • Russ Walker
Bottles of hand sanitizer were available at Lower Paxton Township's 21st precinct at Faith Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pa. on June 2, 2020

 Kate Landis / PA Post

Bottles of hand sanitizer were available at Lower Paxton Township's 21st precinct at Faith Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pa. on June 2, 2020

Smart Talk host Scott Lamar will interview Franklin & Marshall pollster G. Terry Madonna and PA Post’s Emily Previti this morning at 9 a.m. to discuss the results of yesterday’s primary election. The livestream is here. If you miss the live show, check the Smart Talk page later in the day. — Russ Walker, PA Post editor

Kate Landis / PA Post

Bottles of hand sanitizer were available at Lower Paxton Township’s 21st precinct at Faith Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pa. on June 2, 2020. (Kate Landis / PA Post)

Finally, Pennsylvania held its 2020 primary. Originally scheduled for April 28 and postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the primary was no easy feat to pull off, especially with the added stress of protests and riots in many of the state’s cities.

By and large, the voting went well, thanks in large part to the fact that 1.8 million voters requested mail-in ballots. That took pressure off election workers, who had to maintain proper hygiene and social distancing for voters who chose to cast ballots in person.

The downside: We may not get results until next week. County elections offices have never had to process so many mail-in ballots at once. As Emily Previti notes in her roundup of yesterday’s voting, many counties announced weeks ago that they would not begin to tabulate results until today, the day after the election. (Track results here.)

Both parties saw Pa.’s primary as a test case for how they will campaign this fall when it’s likely that at least some coronavirus restrictions will be in place.

“We do feel strongly that it is a dry run for us to figure out some of the pressure points and be able to address them going into November,” said Sinceré Harris, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, told The New York Times. “We are definitely dealing in anything but the norm right now, but at least, when it comes to Covid-19, we’re looking at a situation where similar challenges could come during November.”

Similarly, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported: “How the combined forces of protests and a pandemic effect outcomes remains to be seen. In the coming weeks, political scientists, political organizers, and campaigns will analyze voter behavior and how to apply its lessons to the high-stakes election in November.”

Another interesting point, also from The New York Times, is the partisan divide over mail-in ballots. Because President Trump has declared — FALSELY — that vote-by-mail is rife with fraud, many Republicans are avoiding it (Democrats made up 70 percent or more of all mail-in voters in the primary).

Not investing in vote-by-mail is a problem, according to GOP foot soldiers who do the hard work of mobilizing voters.

“If the Republicans aren’t playing the same game, if we’re saying we don’t believe in mail-in voting and are not going to advocate it, we could be way behind,” Lee Snover, the Republican chair of Northampton County in Pennsylvania, told The Times.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on this vote-by-mail divide last week and noted that the Pennsylvania Republican Party and many GOP candidates were promoting mail-in ballots ahead of the primary.

But even if Republican candidates see the value, the national party is planning to fight it in Pennsylvania and other battleground states “with tens of millions of dollars planned for lawsuits and advertising aimed at restricting who receives ballots and who remains on the voter rolls,” The Washington Post reports. The story notes that the national party plans to send teams to Pennsylvania and other states, under the command of “three regional directors dedicated to monitoring ballot issues, including identifying the need for legal action in the states, according to a campaign official.”

If you missed it, John Oliver took a deep dive into voting by mail in his most recent “Last Week Tonight” on HBO (part of the segment is about Pa.).

More election coverage:

Biden in Philly

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, speaks in Philadelphia on Tuesday following days of protests after the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Matt Rourke / AP Photo

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, speaks in Philadelphia on Tuesday following days of protests after the death of George Floyd in police custody. (Matt Rourke / AP Photo)

Joe Biden, the former vice president and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, came to Philadelphia Tuesday … not to campaign for last minute votes in the state’s primary, but to deliver a speech on the killing of George Floyd and the resulting protests and riots across the country.

“The speech … delivered Biden’s most extensive public remarks on the converging crises that have convulsed the nation and reshaped the 2020 election,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “His visit to Philadelphia was his first campaign trip outside of Delaware since mid-March, when the coronavirus curtailed campaigning, but was the latest in a string of public events in which Biden has reemerged in recent days in Wilmington rather than speaking remotely.”

Biden said he would push for stronger federal oversight of local police departments, WHYY noted. “No more excuses, no more delays. It’s time to pass legislation that will give true meaning to our Constitutional promise of equal protection under the law,” Biden said. Watch the video here.

Biden, by the way, won the Pennsylvania Democratic primary yesterday, as did President Trump on the GOP side. No surprise.

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