Several days ago I wrote Pennsylvania Republicans want to block the vote about this effort. It was long and detailed and many readers may have missed some essential points. We should be worried about this.

To summarize, Republican State Rep. Garth D. Everett is trying to get the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to form a select committee with powers to investigate the 2020 election. I think this could be a useful idea if done a bit differently. But I think the house resolution as written is just a power grab enabling this committee which would be majority Republican to subpoena election officials and seize ballots while the count is going on.

If uncounted ballots are in the possession of this committee, they could not be counted. If election officials are before the committee which may involve travel across the state, they cannot do their jobs in a timely matter to complete the count and certify results. This in turn could delay the results of the election and help the majority Republican legislature make the case that they rather than the voters should determine who is sent to the Electoral College and determine our next President.

I think such an investigation may be appropriate after the election – look back and see what went right and what went wrong. But this idea has been rejected by House Republicans.

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 state representative.