Fetterman’s Debate Performance Proves Early Voting Should Be Banned Completely

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman’s "painful" debate performance is a crucial example of the perils of early voting, allowing people to cast ballots before they've even had a chance to watch a candidate elucidate his policies and platforms.
Screenshot: Washington Post YouTube Channel

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman’s “painful” debate performance is a prime example of the perils of early voting, allowing people to cast ballots before they’ve even had a chance to watch a candidate argue in favor of his policies and platforms.

Fetterman’s performance was a debacle by any measuring stick – including by some very prominent left-wing pundits.

What is even more devastating is that several hundred thousand voters were robbed of the opportunity to see that the Democrat candidate is clearly incapable of performing the duties required in holding a Senate seat prior to voting.

Fetterman’s opponent, Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, challenged him to a series of five debates before the late October one-off was agreed to.

It immediately became clear why the Fetterman campaign wanted to hide their candidate as long as possible.

RELATED: Video: NBC News Admits Democrat John Fetterman Can’t Understand Speech, Needs Transcripts

Early Voting in Pennsylvania: Fetterman Voters Must Be Having Buyer’s Remorse

The Political Insider pointed out prior to the debate that it had been scheduled well after early voting was already underway in the state of Pennsylvania.

Voters in The Keystone State are not required to give an excuse to attain a mail-in ballot and some counties were sending out ballots in late September and earlier this month.

How many of those voters cast their ballot on the word of the Fetterman campaign that their candidate was up to the task of serving in the Senate? On the word of a doctor who, as it turns out, is a campaign donor for the Democrat?

Rather than taking the word of a campaign donor doctor, Pennsylvanians could have decided with their own eyes and ears last night that Fetterman is not fit to run for dog catcher, let alone a seat in the Senate.

It is an unmistakable conclusion.

It was a debate performance MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough described as “painful” and NewsNation host Chris Cuomo concluded shows the Democrat in the race “clearly is dealing with health issues that affect his ability to process and his ability to speak.”

RELATED: John Fetterman’s ‘Painful’ Debate Performance Was So Horrific Even Liberals Are Shocked

Voters Had to Be Shocked

Voters who sent their mail-in ballots early in Pennsylvania may have trusted the word of Fetterman’s campaign and cast their vote for him, confident that he was cleared by medical professionals.

Surely they were shocked by what happened during Tuesday evening’s debate.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, ‘Self, how bad could the early voting be? How much could it sway the outcome of the Senate election?’

We’re glad you asked.

Just hours before the debate, CNN reported that nearly 640,000 pre-election votes have already been cast in Pennsylvania.

“Democrats make up a wide majority of voters who have already cast a ballot in the Keystone State,” they reported. “As of Tuesday, 73% of Pennsylvania voters so far have been Democrats, while 19% have been Republicans.”

Nearly half a million Democrats voted without knowing Fetterman is unfit to serve.

How many, had they waited until Election Day, might have simply stayed home, too ashamed to vote for a candidate propped up by the Democrats like Weekend at Bernie’s?

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, writing in his dissent to a 2021 decision not to hear a challenge to the Pennsylvania mail-in voting procedures, claimed the institution had invited an “erosion of voter confidence.”

The challenge was against the Pennsylvania state court’s ruling that permitted ballots to be counted up to three days after Election Day.

If Fetterman wins in Pennsylvania it will be in part to a significant Democrat edge in early mail-in voting. How much voter confidence will be left if that happens? How much should be left?

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center, argues that early voting allows a proliferation of ill-informed voters. Or, as I call them, the Democrat base.

“There is … no question that when voters cast their ballots weeks before Election Day, they do so without the same access to knowledge about the candidates and the issues as those who vote on Election Day,” Spakovsky states.

“When there are late-breaking developments in campaigns that could be important to the choices made by voters, those who have voted early cannot change their votes.”

640,000 voters cast their mail-in ballot not knowing Fetterman is still, months after his stroke, unable to form coherent sentences. Presumably, a good number of those would care to have known that.

If they don’t, then “democracy” has much, much bigger problems.

The Real Clear Politics average has Fetterman, at least up until last night, ahead of Oz by a mere 1.3 points. They consider the race to be a toss-up.

In 2018, Bob Casey won his Senate seat in Pennsylvania by 13 points over his Republican challenger. The difference was a little over 657,000 votes. 640,000 votes in a race polling within 2 points would most certainly help Fetterman’s campaign.

It should never be allowed. Election Day is named as such for a reason. It’s not called election week. Nor is it known as election month.

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Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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