The LuLac Edition #4,430, November 4th, 2020

 WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our “Write On Wednesday” logo

This week we heed the message of the Times Shamrock Editorial Board as we await the results of the 2020 Presidential race.

LET EVERY VOTE COUNT

Now it’s all over, save for the counting and perhaps a legal battle over which ballots to count.

Much remains unresolved as of this writing Tuesday night, but locally and nationally, it appears voters deliberately and peacefully cast their ballots in the most contentious of elections in decades in a year like no other.

There were glitches here in Luzerne County — polling places that opened late, technical problems, long lines in many districts despite the heavy early vote. Many of those problems could be traced to the introduction of new voting machines that presented a learning curve for voters and poll workers alike.

Still the system was not overwhelmed. The new voting machines seemed to operate efficiently for the most part and the print-and-scan system provided an extra safeguard to assure voters their ballots were recorded accurately.

Counting will continue at the county Bureau of Elections presumably through the weekend, as the state has ruled mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday and received by Friday at 5 p.m. will be accepted. That extension survived challenges from state Republicans in state and federal courts. But the U.S. Supreme Court, which deadlocked 4-4, appears to have left the door open to revisiting the issue, this time with Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett representing a possible tie-breaker.

However the 2020 election unfolds in the coming days, legal efforts to throw out validly cast ballots could thwart any effort to restore comity to our politics and trust in the system, already badly damaged by President Trump’s politically motivated efforts to sow doubt about mail-in voting.

Voters who cast their ballots under the rules as communicated to them by their state and county election officials should have those votes count. It is hard to believe a court could rule otherwise.

Any victory won through court decisions that disenfranchise voters would be hollow for the victor and tragic for the country.