Thursday, November 5th, 2020
My Dear America:
It has been a very stressful couple of days in Pennsylvania this week.
It appears as though the Keystone State is truly a Keystone State in this incredibly important American Election. While most of the Election Votes in other states have already been determined, the total number of votes in Pennsylvania are still being counted on the afternoon of November 5th.
The reason that votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania is because Republican Voter Suppression efforts have been trying to change the rules in the middle of the game and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court got in their way. Pennsylvania's Republican Legislators initially were Ok with how Pennsylvanian's were going to vote in this 2020 Presidential Election. Then they were contacted by the Trump Campaign and all of a sudden Pennsylvania Republican Legislators were doing weird things to get in the way of voting, especially voting that tended to apply to mainly Democrats.
In the runup to the November Election Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans found themselves taking their cases to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. One of the most disturbing moves on the part of the Republican Legislators was their efforts to keep Democrats from having their mail in votes counted. It was expected that Democrats who were in favor of wearing masks and social distancing would prefer to vote by mail in the November Election, While Democrats attempted to allow mail in votes to be counted before November 3rd they were blocked by Republicans from doing so. The end result was a decision from the State Supreme Court preventing mail in ballots from being counted until November 3rd but allowing votes that were received by November 3rd to be counted for 3 days after November 3rd. A last minute attempt by Pennsylvania Republicans and the Trump Campaign to have the U.S. Supreme Court step in and keep the mail in votes from being counted failed.
Although Donald Trump is leading in the vote total in Pennsylvania right now the initial vote count has been mainly in person votes at the Pennsylvania Polls. What is happening in Pennsylvania right now is that in the second day of extended vote counts Trump's lead is shrinking fast as mail in votes are being counted.
Trump's blatant Voter Suppression efforts have certainly had an effect in this Election, including Trump's reprehensible efforts to slow down the United States Postal Service. it must be noted, however, that Donald Trump has also shown an overall very strong measure of support in this Election throughout every state in the America. Clearly Polls that showed a very strong preference across the board for Joe Biden in the last days of the Presidential Campaign and pointed toward an easy win for Biden were far from correct.
This election has shown that although Joe Biden did have more people voting for him than in any other Presidential Election clearly Donald Trump also had a great many more votes than many people, including me, expected that he would have.
Certainly on November 3rd it was obvious to anyone watching Election coverage on Television that something big was happening. Everywhere in America the voting lines were extremely long. That, along with the fact that many Americans had chosen to vote by mail made it clear that interest in and participation in this election was going to be very very high.
Certainly the Pre Election Pronouncements by the President of the United States were concerning. It almost appeared as though he was encouraging his followers to pick up their guns and hit the streets if he wasn't elected. Although Trump has continued to Tweet during this tense period of time this week it appears as though his advisers have been successful in keeping him from inflaming an already difficult situation.
It is not easy to figure out much at this point in time when vote counting continues in several states. What we can realize right now is that this election has been very successful in bringing out voters in every state in America. Certainly to have the massive election turnout we have had in the throes of a Coronavirus Epidemic is stunning. Clearly the increased use of mail in voting has been a big factor in the increased turnout. But the truth is that Americans have checked in this time to have their votes counted because they were interested in the Presidential Candidates and the Presidential Elections.
I fully expect that in the end of the process that Joe Biden will be elected President. What concerns me is that many of Donald Trump's followers are people who are uninformed and in some cases armed and dangerous. It is hard for me to understand how and why Donald Trump continues to show such strength at the ballot box.
Clearly, many Trump followers do not care about Immigrant children separated from their parents and caged at the southern border with no plan to reunite them with their parents. Trump's followers also don't seem to care about Trump kissing up to dictators while disrespecting our Allies all around the world. So what if Trump pulled our troops out of Syria allowing Russia and Turkey to come in and massacre our Kurdish Allies who, in fact, did much of the fighting that led to the control of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Trump followers also seem to feel that there is little or no value to wearing masks and Social Distancing even though the latest total of Covid deaths in the U.S. is 240 Thousand, a staggering amount.
Even if Joe Biden pulls off a win in this election he is not going to have an easy time leading this country. Donald Trump will have left a country that is conflicted and hard hearted. Can Joe Biden pull America together. We certainly have to hope so. He was able to unify the Democratic Party. That was not an easy task so we hope that a President Biden can do what he has done all his life, which is to do a good job and to try to unify the country.
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
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