With concerns about an Election Day debacle rising in this critical swing state, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf privately convened a group of Philadelphia Democrats recently to underscore the consequences of another vote-counting fiasco like the one that took place in the June primary.
The city took more than two weeks to count all of its votes due to a massive surge in mail voting amid the coronavirus pandemic — and a repeat performance might make it unclear who won the presidential election in the key battleground state long past Nov. 3.
Wolf’s intervention accentuated the fears that state Democrats have of the nation being forced to wait on Pennsylvania to call the election — and that President Donald Trump might exploit the fact that it could take days or weeks to count mail ballots in states across the country. Trump has already stoked fears of mail-in voting, and Democrats worry that he could falsely claim that delays in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are proof of fraud, or perhaps even declare victory before all of the votes are tallied.