President Donald Trump characteristically and falsely declared Wednesday morning that he had won reelection. Although that might yet come to pass, the most important thing now is for every vote to be counted in the states that will determine the outcome, so that democracy wins.

Pennsylvania, of course, is among those states. In 2016 and again this year, Trump has denigrated Pennsylvania election officials by predicting that the state count would be marred by fraud. Four years ago, of course, the count was precise enough for Trump to carry Pennsylvania by just 0.7 percentage points. And there is no reason to believe that the count will be any less accurate this time.

There is no law against a close election or a vote count that a candidate finds to be too slow. It is galling now for Trump to cry fraud and threaten litigation, because his campaign largely is responsible for the slow pace of the Pennsylvania count.

For months, county elections offices of both parties begged the state Legislature to allow vote processing of mailed ballots to begin before Election Day. The deluge of 2.4 million mailed ballots, due to new state law and the COVID-19 pandemic, required that measure for the ballots to be counted by the end of Election Day.

But Republican majorities in both Houses, taking their cue from the Trump campaign — which had launched a barrage of legislation against mailed ballot procedures in several states — and decided not to allow an early count.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar subsequently has said innumerable times that the complete state count likely would not be finalized until the end of this week.

Given the volatility of the current political environment, the only acceptable result of this election will to be ensure that every vote is counted. A delay of a few days is nothing compared to the long-term health of the republic.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre (TNS)