Letters: Courts have already reviewed Pa. election; Questions for election review committee

Courts have already reviewed Pa. election

State Sen. Jake Corman announced a committee to exhaustively review the election. The Pennsylvania and U.S. courts have done that multiple times while consistently concluding the election was fair and without fraud. Previously, Corman and Rep. Benninghoff said they would not get involved but follow the law, and let the courts do their job. Corman cannot resist wasting time and money reviewing the undeniable conclusions that the Pennsylvania election was accurate, fair and equitable.

Centre County Commissioner Pipe astutely noted, if an issue exists, it is Act 77 (“no-excuse” absentee voting) with its “gaps and shortcomings.” Since law abhors a vacuum, courts will uphold the law logically filling the gaps and shortcomings while avoiding unintended conflict. Multiple courts did this type of analysis and came up with the same holdings. There were no breaches of security. There were no verifiable claims of inaccuracy. And, most importantly, there was no unequal treatment regarding the process by the secretary of state related to any voting district.

The court reviews are held to a standard of clear and convincing evidence. The best documented review has been done. What standard will the committee use? People are complaining based on unproven observations and innuendo. Do we want a parade of unsubstantiated rumors like we saw in Michigan? What will that prove or fix?

Sen. Corman, if you want to ensure integrity in the vote, perhaps you can follow the law and let the courts do their job. Supporting those results and putting our money to better use.

Questions for election review committee

An article in Tuesday’s CDT quotes state Sen. Jake Corman as saying, “Far too many residents of Pennsylvania are questioning the validity of their votes or have doubt that the process was conducted fairly ...” Will one of the questions investigated by his new committee on election integrity ask why this is so in the absence of any evidence presented to any court, or will they chase shadows looking for non-existent problems? Will they be expending time and funds that could better be spent on addressing control of the spread of the coronavirus in the state and the burdens placed on our health care system? And, if they find problems with the election, will all who stood for election on Nov. 3 give up their seats until a new election can be arranged?

Fraud conspiracy lacks sense

How could it be that in every state that Trump won, there was no election fraud, but in every state he lost, there was fraud? In addition, in the states where he lost and brought lawsuits, judges — some who Trump put into place — laughed the lawsuits out of court, due to a lack of any evidence of fraud.

Perhaps John Bolton, who was once part of the Trump cabal, said it best when he stated that the Trump campaign’s basic argument is that the Democrats created a conspiracy so vast and so successful that there’s no evidence of it.

New ranking for Pennsylvania native son?

Every few years presidential historians, e.g., Doris Kearns Goodwin, rank all former presidents and without fail, our native son, James Buchanan (1857-1861) always ranks last. Predictably Washington, Lincoln, FDR and Truman are among those near the top. For those of us born in Pennsylvania and proud of the arsenal of democracy, it’s downright embarrassing! In just a few weeks, our state’s only president will never suffer the indignity of being ranked last!