Editorials: Now is the time to fix vote-by-mail in Pennsylvania | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is suing Pennsylvania to force changes in how the state collects and counts mail-in ballots. The lawsuit raises some concerns worthy of review, but the lawsuit should not intimidate officials against moving forward with an even more robust mail-in voting process. The Trump campaign maintains that mail-in voting procedures were accompanied by illegal changes, including allowing voters to drop off completed ballots at collection sites outside of county elections offices such as community college campuses, fairgrounds, retirement homes and parks. This is a more than fair point. We cannot go to such lengths to make voting “convenient” that we compromise the franchise. The campaign is also demanding security envelopes for ballots and poll watchers who monitor collection sites. Democratic leaders view the lawsuit as a strategy to further paint mail-in voting as inherently fraudulent, but that doesn’t address the substantive problems that have become evident. The issues raised in the lawsuit should be reviewed to ensure the integrity of the election, but state officials should also make use of the time before the November presidential election to better prepare for what will likely be a huge number of requests for mail-in ballots.