Pennsylvania is a swing state and so will be a major factor in the Presidential election. President Trump is already making noise about not accepting the results of the election and not allowing peaceful transition of power if he loses.

One of his complaints involves how long it will take to process and count mail-in ballots.

The Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives might help in slowing down the process enough that there is no clear winner in a reasonable amount of time. Republican State Rep. Garth D. Everett has introduced HOUSE RESOLUTION No. 1032 which would:

RESOLVED, That the chair of the select committee, on behalf
of the select committee, be authorized and empowered to do all
of the following:

(1) Send for persons and papers and subpoena witnesses,
documents and other materials under the hand and seal of the
chair.

(2) Administer oaths to witnesses.

(3) Take testimony.

(4) Prepare and file pleadings and other legal
documents.

(5) Employ staff for the use of the select committee;
and be it further

I’ve only quoted page 5 lines 3-14 since that is the relevant part but if you want to read the whole thing use the link above. One of the parts not shown tells us that this select committee will consist of three Republicans and two Democrats.

Since there is no mention of dates and this is done by House Resolution (rather than a bill), it takes effect right after approval by the House. The resolution has all ready been approved by the House committee on a party-line vote.

The vote by a whole House will likely be October 19 or sooner. I suspect it will again be a party-line vote or nearly so. Please write or call your representative, especially if he or she is Republican.

The Pennsylvania Capital-Star goes into this in much greeter detail, including this:

During the committee debate, Everett even threatened to remove Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, from the room over his heated comments.

“Democracies die slowly. And I think this bill would be a fatal blow to our democracy,” Kenyatta said.

Everett countered that the goal of the committee was only to see “what was good, what was bad, what we can do better” after November’s election.

But, the chairman still rejected a proposed amendment to only allow the committee to start its work after the election.

If this passed as written the Republican-dominated select committee will have the power to subpoena election officials and worker and other materials (uncounted ballots?) during the election. Rep. Everett says they probably won’t do this but does admit, it is possible.

Everett did not dispute that the committee would have the power to subpoena election officials and pull them away from polling sites on Election Day.

“If the committee chose to, they could subpoena an individual,” he said.

“I think that won’t happen,” he added. “I just don’t know how things would move quite that quickly.”

But I was wondering, why grab a power if you will not use it?