All those fights over late-ar­riv­ing mail bal­lots were much ado about very lit­tle

Just in case you haven’t been thinking lately about the passionate accusations of massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election (which led led to the Jan 6 storming of the Capitol  Building), here’s an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Note that the Post-Gazette editorial page endorsed Trump in 2020.

Massive voter fraud? This author, an NYU professor of constitutional law, checks the numbers and begs to differ.

Perhaps surprisingly, the number of ballots that came in too late to be valid was extremely small — regardless of what deadline states used, or how much that deadline shifted. The numbers were nowhere close to what could have changed the outcome of any significant race.

But because he he doesn’t stoke lizard-brain fears by invoking images of danger, and doesn’t have a talk show audience of millions, this message probably won’t do much to change the minds of those who have already internalized the talking point that an election that went against them was “stolen.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s three-day extension became the primary justification that some Republican senators and representatives offered on Jan. 6 for objecting to counting the state’s Electoral College votes.

But how many took advantage of these extensions? In North Carolina, according to information from the state Board of Elections, 2,484 ballots came in during the additional six days allowed — just 0.04% of the total valid votes.

The number was about 10,000 in Pennsylvania, out of 2.6 million absentee ballots — only 0.14% of the total there. These were not counted in the state’s certified vote total. But had they been, Mr. Biden would likely have added around 5,000 votes to his winning margin, given that he won about three-quarters of the state’s absentee vote.

These are not the numbers of ballots, of course, that would have come in late had the courts refused to extend the deadlines. They show the maximum number that arrived after Election Day, when voters had every right to return ballots this late. –Richard Pildes, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette