Sen. Jake Corman spoke to ’60 Minutes’ about mail-in voting. Find out what he had to say
A record number of voters are expected to participate in the November general election. As candidates enhance campaign efforts in Pennsylvania — a swing state — local officials are preparing elections offices while legislators battle over mail-in voting.
Voting by mail has been a major point of contention this election cycle, especially for President Donald Trump, who has made several unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots heighten the chance of voter fraud. But research shows that fraudulent mail-in voting is rare.
During Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, and other state officials, sat down with correspondent Bill Whitaker to talk about the ongoing legal and political battle over mail-in voting, a factor that could influence who wins the state.
Despite his support for Trump, Corman told Whitaker he believes voting by mail in Pennsylvania is safe and secure.
“I’m not going to speak for the president. That’s — that’s you know — that’s his job,” Corman said. “My job is to make sure the Pennsylvania system works. I think we are doing that. We have done that.”
On Thursday, before the episode aired, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sided with Gov. Tom Wolf in a series of rulings that extended the deadline to return mail-in ballots. The court permitted more ballot drop boxes and removed the Green Party candidate from the presidential ballot.
Mail-in ballots previously were due by the time polls close on Election Day. But now, voters have until 5 p.m. Nov. 6 — three days after the general election — to return their ballots to their local elections office and still have them counted in the final results. The ruling was a victory for the state Democratic Party, which had sought the extension.
In a statement, Corman and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said the court’s decision “jeopardizes election security and timely results.”
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has chosen National Constitution Day to trample on the fundamental principles on which our nation was founded,” they said. “This ruling is not about ensuring fair elections — it is about allowing one party to steal this election.”
But the Pennsylvania Republican Party claims to be a “champion of vote-by-mail,” Whitaker said. Vote-by-mail legislation passed in the Republican-dominated state legislature and was signed into law by Wolf last October. On its website, the state Republican Party calls voting by mail “safe” and easy.”
Corman told Whitaker that some rhetoric surrounding mail-in voting is just “noise.”
“There’s a lot of noise coming from everywhere, he said. “I mean, for anyone to claim that it’s not — it’s all on one side is just not paying attention. Clearly, the president has the biggest microphone. All presidents have the biggest microphone. If you’re an effective policymaker, you gotta — you know, you listen to it to a point, and then, you gotta tune it out. Our job is to make sure this election comes off well and that people are confident in it.”
