BETHLEHEM, Pa. - With the presidential race still undecided, WLVR’s Brad Klein spoke with Pennsylvania’s Senior Senator, Bob Casey Jr. Thursday morning about the U.S. Postal Service and its role in the election, as well as the Lehigh Valley’s place as a bellwether indicator region in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Listen to the interview below.
TRANSCRIPT:
Brad Klein: Much of the U.S. is looking to Pennsylvania as election officials continue to work through over half a million mail-in ballots that remain to be counted at this time. Mail delays have been a concern in this historic election with officials prior to the election asking voters to use ballot drop boxes instead of the Postal Service; but votes that arrive through Friday will be counted. Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Bob Casey has been at the helm of sorting through these postal service issues in the commonwealth. Senator Casey, thank you for joining us!
Senator Bob Casey: Great to be with you, thank you.
BK: You’ve been public in your criticism of U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy, saying he removed mail sorting machines from the state; you’ve demanded their return and publicized mail pile-ups here in the Lehigh Valley and across the state; courts have ordered a sweep of mail-in ballots in postal facilities in the commonwealth - do you have an update on those issues?
Sen. Casey: I don’t have an update, and the one thing we’re going to be watching I think, especially after all the votes are counted, is what impact were the actions by the Postmaster General — the actions he took governing or running the Postal Service like a for-profit corporation, trying to use corporate ideology — what impact will that have on the vote in Pennsylvania. I don’t think I can ascertain that yet; I’m not sure anyone can.
BK: And it’s possible there was a partisan ideology there as well?
Sen. Casey: Look, when you hire someone to run the Postal Service, usually you hire a professional, someone who knows the Postal Service. Mr. DeJoy was a corporate benefactor of the president, of the campaign as well as maybe the inauguration or inaugural committee, so you don’t want to hire that kind of a person to run the Postal Service because government is not a for-profit business. And when he starting shutting down mail sorting machines and making all kinds of changes right before a big election in the middle of a pandemic, I and others were justifiably angry about that. But we’ll see what impact it has.
BK: We’re hearing that we may be getting election number count updates from Philadelphia today, possibly this morning. When can we expect that and what might we learn about the national race?
Sen. Casey: Well we’re certainly going to see information either late morning or sometime in the afternoon from Philadelphia. What I don’t know is - and I don’t think anyone knows - is whether or not that will be the remaining 30%, according to the latest numbers, that are still outstanding in that city, or whether it will be part of that or some portion of it. So we’ve got to wait and see, but when those numbers come in, that will change the statewide vote margin dramatically.
BK: The Trump campaign has falsely claimed a victory already in the commonwealth and sued yesterday to stop counting. Our governor, Governor Wolf, has called this, quote, “simply wrong.” Have you spoken with the governor or with Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, and what’s your perspective on this?
Sen. Casey: Well I haven’t talked to them in the last day or so, but I have my own view. I think when all the votes are counted, Joe Biden is going to be the victor in Pennsylvania; he’s going to win Pennsylvania, I think by a number like 100,000. That’s my prediction, but we’ve got to keep counting.
BK: Have you spoken to election officials here in the Lehigh Valley? Trump holds a small lead in Northampton County which has tallied most of their votes, and there are still many votes remaining in Lehigh County.
Sen. Casey: Yeah, I’m not going to talk to them because I don’t want to get in their way, but Lehigh County still has a lot of their vote out according to the latest. They still have maybe 20 or more percent of their votes to be counted. So we’ll see what happens when that vote is done.
BK: Across the U.S. and the world, all eyes are on Pennsylvania right now, and even the Lehigh Valley is a sort of presidential bellwether. What’s your perspective on Pennsylvania’s role in this historic election?
Sen. Casey: Well I think we’ll probably end up being the state that gives the Electoral College to Joe Biden because we have 20 electoral votes. I think that’s possible today. I hope it comes in the middle of the day instead of late at night, but we’ll see what happens when the counting is done.
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