Editorial: Toomey and Santorum are right about voting
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U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is the kind of Republican that needs to be heard right now.
Toomey has been a reliably conservative Republican his entire political life. He has advocated for the Constitution and hewn close to the party’s bones when it comes to foreign policy, small government and fiscal responsibility. He has practiced the art of compromise and partnership with those on the other side, like his fellow Pennsylvanian, Sen. Bob Casey, and West Virginian neighbor Sen. Joe Manchin, but still did so while following his GOP heart.
In short, he’s not going to change his whole ideology any time soon. He also has no need to worry about his approval numbers because he has already announced he isn’t running for reelection when his term ends in two years.
So we should listen to him when he says there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, President Trump made remarks from the White House for the first time since the hours after the polls closed. The election map was very different 40 hours later, and Trump focused attention on must-win Pennsylvania and its crucial counting and large backlog of mail-in ballots that were increasingly eroding his early lead in the state.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” he said. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
But on Friday morning, Toomey went on “CBS This Morning” and said that there is no credible fear of illegal votes in the Keystone State.
“The president’s speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without evidence,” Toomey said.
And if we don’t believe Toomey, maybe we should believe another GOP voice from Pennsylvania. Rick Santorum, who spent two terms in the House representing Pittsburghers and two in the Senate representing the state before running for president himself, has also repudiated the president’s allegations.
“Much of that statement was not factual and was at times incendiary and is not something the president of the United States should say,” Santorum said Thursday night on CNN, calling the suggestion “dangerous.”
Santorum has endorsed Trump and has consistently supported many of his administration’s policies, but he found the statements to be a bridge too far. He specifically called out the president’s attempts to shut down Pennsylvania vote counting in one sentence while saying in the next that he would win Arizona if the ballots were all counted.
“I am hopeful that Republicans will stand up at this time and say what needs to be said about the integrity of our election,” Santorum said.
What is equally important is that people who aren’t elected officials or party elders be willing to listen.
But in the meantime, there are still mail-in ballots to count for Pennsylvanians who did what everyone has encouraged them to do. They participated in their government and voted according to the rules that shouldn’t be changed after the fact. They raised their voices about the presidency and Congress, state offices and legislators, and all of those choices need to be counted and recorded and acted upon appropriately.
“We have got to let this process play out,” Toomey said. “I voted for President Trump. I endorsed President Trump. I want the next president to be the person who legitimately wins the Electoral College. I will accept whoever that is.”
Regardless of who wins the White House, Pennsylvanians win when the process works.