A dead man can vote for a Democrat as the Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania House?!?
It sounds crazy, but if this stands, it may kill a proposed constitutional amendment to require Voter ID
The Democrats are so accustomed to dead people casting ghost votes in elections that they think that a dead person can also cast a ghost vote in the Pennsylvania House for the Majority Leader.
In the November election, Democratic candidates won a majority of votes in 102 legislative districts and Republican candidates won a majority of votes in 101 legislative districts. Normally, this would give the Democrats a 102-101 majority. The problem is that one of the successful Democratic candidates died just before the election, and a dead man can't serve. Ghosts can't cast votes in the state legislature.
This minor detail did not stop the Democrats from having the previous Minority Leader, Joanna McClinton, sworn in as Majority Leader. The fact that the death of the candidate would make the new House, at the time that she took the oath, tied 101-101 did not faze her.
In addition to the loss of a seat from the absence of life of one of their winning candidates, two more seats were later rendered vacant when Democrats who had won higher offices resigned their seats. The final result, if only those who are alive and who have not resigned are counted when the House reconvenes in January, would thus be 101-99 in favor of the Republicans.
The reason why this actually matters is that the Majority Leader has the power to schedule elections for vacant seats. The Democrats want three special elections to be held on February 7. As retaliation for the shenanigans of Ms. McClinton, the Republicans now plan to schedule two of the elections for May 16, the date of the spring primary election. The state executive branch bizarrely claims that the Republican House Majority Leader could not schedule an election in November, but Ms. McClinton can schedule elections in December. The entire affair is now headed for court.
This apparent tempest in a teapot will actually have huge consequences for the security of future state elections. The Republicans plan to use their majority to pass a Voter ID amendment to the state constitution. Proposed amendments can not be vetoed by the Governor, who will be a Democrat. The Republicans will control the Senate, so if they are also in control of the House until May, then the amendment should pass both houses. It will then will be sent to the voters to be approved or disapproved on May 16, the date of the spring primary. As the elections for two House seats will also be scheduled for May 16 if the Republicans prevail in court, this would preclude the Democrats from seizing control of the House before the amendment is passed or rejected by the voters.
Readers may smirk at the idea of a ghost voting for Majority Leader, but this farce illustrates several deeply disturbing trends in US politics. The Democrats are using a blatantly biased interpretation of the law to allow their leader to gain power. A judge, who should have an understanding of the law sufficient to know that dead people can't vote in the state legislature, actually swore her in as Majority Leader. The Governor will certainly veto any Voter ID law, so the only recourse left is an amendment to the state constitution.
The Democrats are abusing the powers of the executive and judicial branches of state government to usurp control over one half of the legislative branch of the state government. This theme is not unique to Pennsylvania, as it is becoming the national anthem of the entire Democratic Party. If this continues, future generations of history professors will need to patiently explain to their puzzled students that the party that subverted democracy in America in the 21st century had the confusing name of the Democratic Party.
This reminds me of the Democrats using the judicial branch to rewrite the law for Pennsylvania elections in 2020. The law said that all ballots must be received by 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Election Day, and all mail-in ballots needed to have a legible postmark. The PA and US Supreme Courts, by a 4-3 vote and a tied 4-4 vote, respectively made and let stand a ruling that essentially rewrote the law so that ballots needed no postmarks at all and could be received by 5:00 p.m. on the following Friday, three days after Election Day.
They let dead people vote, they let a dead legislator magically cast a ghost vote, they extend voting for three days past Election Day, they let ballots with no postmarks count as "mail-in" ballots - is there anything that they won't try to do, to steal as much power as possible?
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2022/12/pa-2022-election-state-house-specials-joanna-mcclinton/
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2022/12/pa-house-majority-special-elections-republican-lawsuit/
https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pa-republicans-fight-to-prolong-house-majority-and-pass-far-reaching-constitutional-amendments/