comment: >
  
  When someone says majority, it doesn't mean only. It means majority. Let me know if you need more help.
context: No. Shit. Hilariously even after that the fucking scumfuck conservatives still lost the state house. >
  
  Less hilariously, none of the scumfuck conservatives involved in this went to jail or have been given any real reason not to try the same tricks in the next election
  "Scumfuck" is a real nice expletive, btw, good ~~vowel consonance~~ assonance >
  
  Well now that the Democrats have control, they should pass some laws to make it way harder to invalidate ballots - hell, they should add vote by mail for the whole state >
  
  Unfortunately, Republicans still control the state Senate PA and are free to obstruct anything the state House passes.
  PA Dems need a landslide in 2024. >
  
  Well I'm moving up there very soon so I'll be adding my vote for blue. I'm helping. >
  
  thank you 
  also please repeal the asinine filial responsibility laws >
  
  What a despicable law! A child is responsible for the parent’s nursing home bills as long as the parent didn’t abandon the child for a period of at least 10 years while the child was under the age of 18?! Not saying this is your situation, but why should you be on the hook for the nursing home bills of your parent, who abused the hell out of your from birth to whenever you were able to escape the home and have never had contact with them again? Even a in loving parent/child relationship it’s patently unrealistic! >
  
  Why should they be on the hook for the nursing home bill at all? >
  
  
  Why should they be on the hook for the nursing home bill at all?
  
  Exactly! 
  The wealthy get away with everything because the money "isn't really theirs, they are just a caretaker of the trust that happens to give our free private plane rides to its caretakers" or some nonsense like that. 
  Meanwhile, we get generational poverty. >
  
  Maybe your great-great-grandparents should have thought about that before being born poor. >
  
  Republicans cheat yet still lose.  Pitiful. >
  
  And that is why they say the election(s) were stolen.
  They tried their hardest to cheat and still lost. Ergo, it was stolen. >
  
  
  "The elections are dirty"
  
  Said the child with mud on his hands. >
  
  The elusive double quote >
  
  The only reason the Republicans oppose mail-in voting is that it makes Democrats stronger.  But they can't come out and say that, so they hide behind claims of fraud. >
  
  
  The only reason the Republicans oppose mail-in voting is that it makes Democrats stronger. But they can't come out and say that, so they hide behind claims of fraud.
  
  And early voting, longer voting hours at polling places, adequate numbers of polling places, and so on and so forth. They are against anything that makes it easier for Dems, or areas that trend Dem, to vote and the cowards hide behind 'voter fraud' as the reason.. >
  
  Fuck all that shit.  Mail in voting, every voter in a state that is mail in voting is not the standard should be pushing their representatives for it. >
  
  I’m also for voter IDs (as long as they are easily attainable I.e. affordable, or better yet, free) that would allow us to vote from any polling place in the country. In 2023, there is no way I (a GA voter) shouldn’t be able to slide my ID into a voting machine in MN and have all of the elections pertinent to my area available to me. >
  
  Why would we need voter IDs if we have a federal mail-in ballot voting system? >
  
  Before Trump, Republicans were historically some of the highest promoters, defenders, and users of mail-in voting.  Just goes to show how they will abandon facts, evidence, data, and reason in a heartbeat if it allows them to continue the grift.  The GOP realized after Obama was elected that they no longer had a popular mandate with modern voters.  GOP consultants told them to change their platform and embrace progressive political positions to woo new voters.  They absolutely refused to listen to their consultants, so they turned to baseless fear-mongering and dangerous, violent conspiracy theories instead.  There’s even evidence showing that the only major political strategy the GOP has at this point is to attack their opponents.  That’s it.  They aren’t a legitimate political party at this point.  They are just embarrassed confederates trying to turn the clock of history back in time.  They are not good people. >
  
  Isn't this kind of dangerous in a country that has access to nukes? If a country believes in the religious end of days scenario as America does, what is to stop it from kicking it all off with a nuclear war when the opportunity presents itself? >
  
  Cause the people in power just use that to their advantage. People in power pretend to be religious because they aren’t stupid enough to believe it… or at least I hope that’s the case >
  
  Hopefully you are correct, but it all feels a little bit like the "72 virgins" mentality that cause Muslim extremists to want to end the world. >
  
  And the people who believe that were the foot soldiers not the leaders… you think any of the actual leaders would blow themselves up? 😂 smart people tell dumb people what they wanna hear to get what they want >
  
  America is unique in that it has access to thousands of nuclear warheads, but also hundreds of millions of dumb people that can be activated to carry out the crazy by such leaders. This is all a bit unsettling. >
  
  America loves living on the brink of nuclear war, it’s just who we are… thank god Russians decided not to respond to our tricks >
  
  Is relying on the other side to figure out you're not serious a good way to do business? That all seems a bit scary, no? >
  
  
  Democrats had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited. Independents and third parties amounted to 1,731 votes that did not count in the fall election.
  
  That seems like a significant number. Especially when elections were so close this past year. Some places (not PA specifically) saw wins by just a few votes. >
  
  The GOP targets certain zipcodes with signature matching.  They have stats how many votes they need to toss out and they do their damndest to hit those targets.  That’s why they were acting as if the results are fungible. >
  
  Signature matching feels like such a shitty verofocation method.
  I can't even remeber the last rime I signed my name to anything. >
  
  Even when I do sign something, I doubt it's frequently consistent >
  
  It’s not, and it’s been challenged as a literacy test for that exact reason. >
  
  Are those ballots mailed to the County Clerk?   Are the GOP now saying that the USPS will lie about their automate postage stamp date?   
  Here in Texas, the USPS office will hand stamp those ballots if that is requested by the voter. >
  
  There's a spot on the outside "secrecy" envelope where you need to hand write the date.  Not the ballot itself, the envelope.  If you don't do that, or it's illegible or incorrect, they throw out the actual ballot.  It's the new literacy test. >
  
  The "literacy" test was not passable, it was a judgment call and the proctor failed minorities and helped whites pass. Poor comparison, this is an actual test of following the voting directions as written >
  
  
  following the voting directions as written
  
  hmm what might one call that >
  
  How does it feel to cheat and still lose GOP? >
  
  "Like we need to cheat harder next time..." >
  
  John Fetterman still won. But FU for canceling ballots!!! >
  
  He didn't even just win, he whipped complete and total ass. >
  
  At the time, I was expecting 3 Morb-billion votes for John Fetterman. Despite that, he won by a big majority. >
  
  One of my friend’s brothers received their mail in ballot from a predominant Republican district the month after the election and it was dated 11/7/2022. PA Republicans are CORRUPT. >
  
  Republicans: if you can't win, cheat. >
  
  Then still lose. Brilliant >
  
  Can you imagine how many Dem ballots were disallowed in states like Texas and Florida? >
  
  Mine was in Florida. The excuse was they couldn't verify my signature. >
  
  Exactly why I came home from college to vote. Didn’t want to risk having my mail-in discounted >
  
  Mission accomplished, you Republican’t shitheads! Voter suppression successfully achieved. >
  
  Successfully? They still went the fuck down in flames. >
  
  Demos had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited
  So that's a swing of over 7,000 votes. Good thing Fetterman kicked that charlatan's ass or this could have made the difference. >
  
  I would assume the majority would be dems because the majority of people who mail in vote are dems >
  
  Yeah I feel like this is lost on people. But, the article doesn’t say what the ratio is for mail in voting overall. >
  
  I looked it up. Number I got was "roughly 70%" (of mail in ballot requests to be clear). Number of rejected dem ballots was 68% of total rejected mail in ballots. 
  So in other words, nothing to see here. >
  
  Yup, I could tell that the moment they said half of the dem ballots were thrown out for not using the secrecy envelope, but didn't tell us if half the Republican ballots were thrown out for the same reason.  A difference in ratios would fuckery going on.  No difference in ratios means no fuckery.  But they didnt tell us that to hide their nothingburger story. >
  
  It must be a punch to the gut to cheat and STILL lose >
  
  So many Republicans are seriously evil >
  
  Republicans cheated and disenfranchised as many voters as they could—and still lost.  
  Can you imagine if everyone got to vote and the voting had been fair in Pennsylvania? >
  
  can we please just stop this nonsense of voter fraud?   there was literally only a few instances and they are all maga people >
  
  So people voted but it didn't have the privacy envelope so it doesn't count? That's like refusing a student their test because they didn't have the correct #2 pencil. Wtf is wrong with people >
  
  I agree with you, but that’s what happened at my university. If you didn’t have the right materials, you were shit out of luck. >
  
  And Mastriano and Oz still lost. >
  
  Every accusation is a confession. >
  
  After my first absentee ballot didn't arrive, my second one never came. JFC. At least we won the big races, but I was so pissed. >
  
  Voter disenfranchisement - the Republican way >
  
  Because fascism. >
  
  Yeah, no surprise here at all. At least Fetterman and Shaprio won but they tried to throw out as many mail-in-ballots as they could because they realized that would give more people a chance to vote. >
  
  So, what does the class action lawsuit happen?  /s >
  
  Republicans: "Will you PLEASE stop bringing up and pointing out the fact that we are everything we claim to be against?!" >
  
  So… any consequences for this criminally anti-democratic nonsense? >
  
  Idk why you guys don’t think this is a biggie? Yeah the dems won house but this amount of dem votes could have easily flipped a few senate seats. To me, this is real election theft. >
  
  I’m shocked!
  Shocked!
  Okay, not that shocked >
  
  Of course they were.. who’s surprised >
  
  Welcome to america, where counting all the votes is a radical idea.
  Maybe it should be illegal to not count or "cancel" votes and ballots. Just an idea. >
  
  So what are the deterrents against such shenanigans for the future? >
  
  Glad the Betterman still won.
  ​
  Fuck Crudité >
  
  
  Democrats had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited. Independents and third parties amounted to 1,731 votes that did not count in the fall election.
  
  It's not just a majority (which would be fair, since Dems cast more votes overall). Dem ballots were thrown out three times as often as Republican ballots.
  Supposedly it's because the ballots fail to meet requirements like putting the vote in a secrecy envelope and having a legible date written on the envelope. But it seems likely that counters can use their discretion to throw out a ballot due to prejudice and claim it's for some other reason. >
  
  
  But it seems likely that counters can use their discretion to throw out a ballot due to prejudice and claim it's for some other reason.
  
  Not just likely, but when it comes to Republicans and their supporters, practically a given, imo. >
  
  As an outsider looking in at “As America Turns” the drama and conflict that comes out of that country on the daily is always bafflingly entertaining.  
  The blatant disregard for democracy and overt racism is confusing… it’s not that it doesn’t exist here. But it’s just extremely frowned upon and any display of that sort of thing is dealt with sharply, shamefully and publicly. 
  And you just know that this was rooted in racism. >
  
  And if they had won by 8k votes they would immediately go on TV and say things like "The people have spoken!" or "This is the will of people..." >
  
  Quelle surprise. >
  
  Despite this, the Dems won. The Republicans still running on years of failed strategies. >
  
  Yeah no shit >
  
  Gaslight
  Obstruct <------a smattering of this
  Project <------as per usual, a metric shit ton of this. >
  
  Happened to me in Utah (didn’t have time to go down and re-sign the ballot or whatever, I work in healthcare and had like back to back 16 hour days). It was rejected due to “signature mismatch.” I have used essentially the same signature since I got my drivers license, I don’t buy for a second it was far off enough to warrant that. But whatever my district is gerrymandered as hell. >
  
  I can't believe it. I never thought fascists would behave like fascists. >
  
  Remember, it’s a feature not a bug. >
  
  So much ratfucking, and still losers. >
  
  Shapiros solution: pick a republican to run PA elections >
  
  Al Schmidt is a great choice. No issue here >
  
  I can feel the MAGA heresy dripping as they scream about how dare their votes be rejected when democrats were tossed 70% more. Wtf? >
  
  It's all projection. Every accusation is a confession. >
  
  Quelle surprise. >
  
  Feature not a bug. >
  
  I’m shocked! Shocked I say! >
  
  Trump shitt >
  
  surprising no one >
  
  How tf do you just cancel a ballot >
  
  “Let’s see, this Republican ballot goes in the Republican basket and this Democratic ballot goes in the shredder.” /s >
  
  Bruh lol >
  
  Over 10,000 were Dem votes
  Over 3,000 Republican
  Over 1,000 Independent >
  
  Of course. How else are republicans supposed to win? On policy positions? lmao >
  
  Conservatives literally cheating elections >
  
  GQP are just liars and losers >
  
  The fascist "Big Lie": accuse the enemy of doing what you're actually doing. >
  
  Even when they cheat they still can't win. >
  
  Does anyone know of a proven cheating scenario that involved democrats? Or is it always republicans? >
  
  I can only think of Ozzie Myers, but that wasn't a voter trying to commit fraud.   
  There may have been one case in PA, but I can't remember details. >
  
  Of course. There is never voter fraud. If it’s discovered it’s always some redneck trump supporter voting for a dead parent. Just one of the excuses from the GOP playbook >
  
  Corrupt Republicians all around. They will do anything to lie, cheat, and fight to win. Sad is their dirty cheating and fist fights among parents at kids' sporting events ! Grown babies can't even do that right ! >
  
  It's insane that they have manipulated millions into believing it's the democrats cheating when we have witnessed case after case that the actual cheaters are indeed them. The thing is they start cheating immediately they start prepping for the next election immediately and have been for decades. They have slowly changed laws throughout the country, they have slowly seeded the courts with picks from the actual deep state, these nefarious men who are forces behind the scenes like the heritage foundation etc who are the people picking rhe people who run our courts and frankly run our country. So it's also insane that they have their base yelling about the deep state being Joe Biden and Obama when in actuality the deep state is puppeteerung these bought and paid for Republicans. Look how easy it was to bend Kevin Mccarthy all becayse he was desperate for power. They are so easy to buy. >
  
  We need federal election laws so they are universal and easier for the public. >
  
  Wait… so Biden could have won by even more votes? Tremendous. Simply tremendous. >
  
  The real story here is that none of the people who committed this blatant criminal act... are going to face any consequences and will most certainly try again and eventually they will succeed.
  The wheels of Justice are not turning slowly, they're not turning at all. >
  
  What crime? There are rules about what constitutes a valid ballot and these ballots didn’t meet those requirements. Even if you think those rules are unjust (and to be clear, I would agree) the remedy for that is to have them stuck down, not arrest the people who passed them. >
  
  The counties that did not work to cure improper ballots are a fucking disgrace to America >
  
  As much as I dislike the nitpicky formatting laws surrounding mail in ballots in PA, it's the lack of funding for proper notification and clerical review of mail in ballots that I think is at the top of my shit list.  No matter what the mail in voting laws are, you need proper funding for the staff who will review and count the ballots.  And not every county has enough. >
  
  TBF the majority of the mail in ballots were from Dems, period. >
  
  that would make perfect sense since democrats make up the majority of mail in voters >
  
  “We can’t guarantee your right to privacy in how you voted but we CAN guarantee you don’t get your right to vote at all. You’re welcome.” >
  
  Is this disproportionate to the rate that these groups vote by mail? >
  
  Anyone else request a mail in ballot, have it confirm that you’ll receive one, and then not receive one? >
  
  Contact you elections office if it happens again >
  
  And Dumb Asstriano still got blown out >
  
  Thank god >
  
  Ya don’t say, got damn seriously. >
  
  Then we need to work on education and have clear instructions for elderly and everyone to fill out ballots correctly and completely. Nullify Republican's strategy. >
  
  Of course they were…. >
  
  Jeepers, who could ever have guessed except everyone because this has always so clearly been the goal? >
  
  Pennsylvania election law is interesting. It doesn't require verification for the signature on a ballot envelope, which is a lower threshold that must be met for early ballots than in some states.
  But it does require the ballot envelope be used to return the ballot, and be signed and dated, as it functions as the legal declaration of the voter's identification.
  Some Pennsylvania counties attempt to contact voters to correct errors on the ballot that would disqualify it. Other counties apparently do not.
  But if a voter didn't provide an email address when applying for a mail ballot, according to the link in the OP, there is no automatic notification system for the voter to get status updates, which is weird.
  Would be good to see the exterior envelope date requirement ended, as negotiations between the Gov and state legislature could have done.
  Seems like a better standardized process for curing ballots would be a good idea too, like the ACLU counsel for Pennsylvania said. Attempt contact via postal mail, email, and by enabling voters to sign up for text notifications on status updates, like some states do. >
  
  Republicans will be very upset at this voting crime. I'm sure of it. >
  
  
  immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting
  
  The  Civil Rights Act of 1964 is pretty damn clear on this issue. Someone tell me again how the  US legal system is not a farce. 
  Geriatrics in robes arbitrarily decide whatever they want based on when they had their coffee that morning regardless of all laws, legal precedent, and objective fact. >
  
  Well yea...it threatens the GOP terror network. >
  
  Nice Friday night burial attempt >
  
  How do mail in votes work in the US?
  In sweden mail in is basically just having the possibility to vote earlier then election day. You go to a place, do your thing, they check your vote-card (which everyone gets in the mail at least a month prior to the election) and your ID/passport vs the list of eligible voters and vote-card. Then they put your unidentifiable vote-letters in the three different boxes and all is done. If you mix them with regular election day votes there is zero possible chance to distinguish them.
  It does require some form of reasonable infrastructure though and a national register of citizens. >
  
  I’m Australian and it’s not that I struggle to follow the US electoral system, it’s more I’m astounded that it’s evolved the way it has. 
  You can’t get a simple explanation to mail in voting because each state has its own laws/rules on who, how and when people can vote and it’s borderline madness. 
  At the very least I will never understand how individual states can make such conflicting voting laws in federal elections. Any election for the federal House, Senate and Presidential races should have uniform voting guidelines. 
  Like any sane country would.
  You want to fuck around on a state level and play cute with how people vote, then have at it.
  Federally, everyone should be able to vote early at the polls or mail-in with the same time frames and methods. Be counted in the same way and have the same laws in place around automatic recounts. Also, no district voting to avoid gerrymandering. The entire state gets counted, the candidate with the most votes get the Electoral College votes.
  Anyway, that’s my drunken rant about a topic that offers endless reward for rabbit hole diving trying to make sense of anything. >
  
  I am convinced Republicans cheat the fuck out of the voter system, and have now kinda made me a supporter of a voter ID law? 
  Something tells me that if there was a voter ID law, the GOP numbers would be cut in half. >
  
  And GQP claim no thousands of GQP ballots were canceled lol >
  
  Of course considering that the majority of mail in ballots are from dems >
  
  imagine Republicans had less mail in ballots in general, though, because they’ve actively discouraged them. But even accounting for that, this is still a dirty trick. >
  
  Puts Doctor Oz on the ballot….blames something else for the loss lol. >
  
  But it’s “voter integrity” right?!? Clearly it always has been voter suppression.  When one party wants to make it harder for people to vote that tells you everything you want to know. But hey when they take your social security and Medicare and Medicaid in addition to your basic freedoms maybe then you will learn. >
  
  I had my ballot cancled by a poll worker on election day because it never came in. After it was canceled I voted normally. >
  
  Yes Pensilvanias! The court said your vote! The right this country has given you is NOT being accepted! >
  
  “Stop the ste…oh never mind. Carry on”
  -republicans, probably. >
  
  Are we even surprised? >
  
  Dems don't need to cheat to win. Both side as are human, and that is about as same as it gets. >
  
  The majority of PA voters voted for Dems so this seems pretty reasonable as the percentages are roughly in line with the outcome. >
  
  They were rejected for one of the dumbest fucking reasons I've ever heard of.  Pathetic. >
  
  Republicans cheated. As usual. >
  
  The biggest issue with mail in ballots is that they're an easy target since the majority of them are Democratic votes. >
  
  The 2024 Presidential Election is going to be a big cluster f... >
  
  surprised Pikachu face >
  
  Their motto, if GQP can’t win, GQP CHEAT! >
  
  Makes sense really, a majority of mail-in ballots are Dems therefore a majority of cancelled ballots being Dems is logical >
  
  Yah the article even points out how Democrats make up a majority of mail in voters. I did the math and 68% of ballots rejected were from Dems. That's  basically exactly what percent of Dems requested to vote by mail.
  Shit like this thread is why reddit liberals are considered such a joke. It's literally just full of people who didn't read the article and just wanted an excuse to call republicans cheaters. >
  
  Makes sense, since the majority of mail in voters are Dems. >
  
  What would you say if I told you 68% of rejected mail in ballots were from Democrats which is roughly equal to the percentage of mail in voters that were Democrats? 
  Can you explain to me how rejecting ballots from each party at an equal rate equated to messing with the scales? >
  
  Well I don't know about you guys but this news has left me shaken to my very core. >
  
  TBF don’t democrats vote with mail ins at a higher rate than republicans? >
  
  Only recently >
  
  Pretty obvious why.
  Also from the article "But the Democrats' much greater use of mail-in voting also meant they saw far more of their votes disqualified than did Republicans, independents and third party voters combined."
  Maybe the instructions need to be clearer or harder to mess up. >
  
  I don't know much about what caused the rejections but it seems like the share of rejected votes is pretty miniscule in proportion to how many voted by mail. 
  If a vast majority got it right I don't see the problem. You can only make them so idiot proof before they become useless as a voting measure. >
  
  Rank choice voting. Change the system. Bring the power back to the people!!! >
  
  That's a feature, not a bug.  Ohio did pretty much the same thing in multiple areas and it didn't even get brought up in the local news because that's what they always do. >
  
  Ya know. As a Democrat myself...I'm disappointed that you gave those mother fuckers a leg to stand on. Get your shit together and read the fucking instructions. Put the correct date. Use the secrecy envelopes. No excuses. Make them cheat to win, don't give them a chance because we tripped over our own dicks. >
  
  Of course they were Democrat votes cancelled most - no surprises there. Cheater gqp gotta cheat and lie to win. >
  
  Man this whole alternative facts things is really getting a lot of mileage >
  
  Not one fucker in the comments read the damn article.  Forgetting envelopes?  This isn't nefarious.  
  Look deeper in the article, Shapiro got >5x the votes by mail than Mastriano did.  But total number of rejections were just about 3x.
  Ergo..... Democrat ballots were rejected at a lower rate than republicans' ballots. 
  Next up they're going to get their panties in a twist because more Democrats get shark bites in REPUBLICAN FLORIDA than they do in the northeast coast >
  
  I’m shocked I tell you. Shocked >
  
  Well not that shocked >
  
  It’s the voter’s fault in this case for doing things like not using secrecy ballots.
  I HAD THE JOB OF SENDING OUT MAIL IN BALLOTS. There are very specific criteria we need to have to ensure privacy and security. We ship very explicit instructions with each ballot.
  This doesn’t sound like some big conspiracy, instead it sounds like voters didn’t do their due diligence. >
  
  Follow instructions, people. Just like your teachers tried to teach you. >
  
  This is the same line of thinking as don't run from the cops if you're not guilty. The world is not that black and white. >
  
  Yall keep complaining about everything these political parties do. Yet you continue to vote for them. Yall the problem, not The Democratic-Republicans >
  
  Leave it up to front-page Reddit to turn “16k people found to be too stupid to follow voting directions” to “Republicans destroy democracy through unlawful voter suppression.” >
  
  Luckily we have conservative filth to clean up the misunderstanding! Yay. >
  
  Well I vote only Democrat so am I allowed to clean up the misunderstanding? 
  68% of ballots rejected were Democrats. Roughly 70% of mail in ballot requests were from Democrats. This is a complete non-issue. 
  This is even addressed in the article partly >
  
  Biometrics and state issued id should be the standard >
  
  I want to compare this volume, and the volume every time this happens, to the one time that thousands of votes get canceled that are mostly republican. >
  
  When was that? >
  
  It hasn't happened to my knowledge but I get fox news would incite riots across the country. >
  
  
  The agency said 8,250 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots were rejected because they were sent in without being contained within a secrecy envelope, making it impossible for them to be tabulated without putting voter privacy at risk.
  
  This alone is a violation. The secret ballot is one direction only. No one can force you to reveal your vote. No one can prevent you from revealing it, either. They're arguing they can't process these because they can't allow the voters to admit what their vote was. >
  
  That’s not correct. >
  
  Soooo…Democrats need to learn how to sign and date things is what I take from this?