This morning brings fresh news that in response to a GOP lawsuit, vote counting in Philadelphia will slow down dramatically. Said the city’s sole Republican elections commissioner: “I want to be very clear that when there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots that the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia — and only Philadelphia — to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does.”
It’s worth remembering: it’s fine if vote-counting takes a while. It’s a bit annoying. But there’s really no rush. The issue of course is that Republicans are already out in force across the country claiming that post-Election Day counting is a sure sign of fraud. The fact that Philly has a large Black population makes it an even bigger target of “vote fraud” propaganda, much as Detroit was in 2020 and both cities have been in numerous previous cycles. Indeed, Republicans have been after Detroit voters just this weekend.