Cami Mondeaux writes for the Washington Examiner about the role the Keystone State could play in holding up this fall’s election results.
Pennsylvania is poised to face many of the same challenges in 2024 that it experienced in the 2020 election which led to the state not being called for President Joe Biden until days after Election Day.
The dayslong delay in determining the winner sparked widespread accusations of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, leading to the Keystone State being among the battleground states that faced lawsuits from former President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2020. Four years later, state legislators have failed to resolve the key disputes over ballot tabulation and certification that prompted the backlog.
Pennsylvania has established itself as the cornerstone of the 2024 election, with its 19 electoral votes and battleground status making it among the biggest prizes on election night and crucial to winning the presidency. The state was paramount to Trump’s victory in 2016 as well as Biden’s in 2020, prompting both parties to pour millions of dollars into the state to secure a pathway to the White House.
Some changes have been made in the state since 2020, such as a lower court ruling last week that would require counties to notify voters if their ballots are at risk of being rejected. Another ruling passed down last week would overturn a state requirement to throw out ballots if they are not correctly dated.
However, several other disputes await rulings from Pennsylvania judges, which could alter the state of play for vote counting in a key swing state.
And even as some of those legal challenges are being worked out, Pennsylvania remains one of only two states that have not passed any sort of expansive, restrictive, or interference-related law since the 2020 election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
