Why Election Day Deadlines Matter
With the election is just days away, states have continued to follow a dangerous practice of looking to adjust their election day deadlines. States now are taking the federal government, and anyone else who disagrees with them, to extend vote-counting past election day.
This is practice is a dangerous precedent that should not be encouraged. Every once of power, including reason and history, should be used to keep election day sacred.
I know what you're saying, 'Kevin Miller, it's a historic year. Every vote should count. What about people that have mailed in their ballots. Shouldn't their votes count?' My answer is, ' yes, everyone vote counts, but you have to have a concrete deadline. If there's no deadline, when do you stop counting ballots?'
The state of Pennsylvania is being re challenged by the Republican Party to eliminate its voter extension deadline. The government recently won a lower court decision that will allow them to count votes three days after election day. Last week's 4-4 Supreme Court ruling allowed a lower court ruling to stand. Now the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett could end the tie, reports The Hill.
Back to why election day deadlines matter. In life, we all have deadlines. We have to be at work at a particular time. We have appointments that are at specific times. If we allow a floating deadline, then when will a final decision be made and, more importantly, recognized as the legitimate results of a hotly contested election. We can't continue a game until we get the results that we find favorable.