(trendingpolitics) – A Pennsylvania court has ruled that the mass mail-in ballots that played a pivotal role in the 2020 election chaos are unconstitutional.
The Commonwealth Court ruled that Act 77, which
allowed residents no-excuse absentee vote by mail in Pennsylvania,
violates Article VII, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania constitution.
The
Acting Secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of State had his
application denied for summary relief. The ruling can be read in full
below:
Pennsylvania Court Decision on Mail-in Ballots by Becker News on Scribd
Commonwealth
Court President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, who presided over a
five-person panel of judges, wrote: “If presented to the people, a
constitutional amendment to end Article VII, Section 1 requirement of
in-person voting is likely to be adopted. But a constitutional amendment
must be presented to the people and adopted into our fundamental law
before legislation allowing no-excuse mail-in voting can be ‘placed upon
our statute books.’” Will Joe Biden increase tension with Russia?* Not our problem Yes Email* This poll gives you free access to our premium politics newsletter. Unsubscribe at any time.
It is unclear why the judge was making political assessments
in her filing, but nonetheless it stands that the changes to the law
violated the Pennsylvania constitution.
As the ruling states:
“Act 77,inter alia, created the opportunity for all Pennsylvania
electors to vote by mail without having to demonstrate a valid reason
for absence from their polling place on Election Day, i.e., a reason
provided in the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
“The central question
presented in this matter is whether Act 77 conforms to Article VII of
the Pennsylvania Constitution, which article governs elections,” the
ruling states. “In resolving this question, we recognize that ‘acts
passed by the General Assembly are strongly presumed to be
constitutional’ and that we will not declare a statute unconstitutional
‘unless it clearly, palpably, and plainly violates the Constitution. If
there is any doubt that a challenger has failed to reach this high
burden, then that doubt must be resolved in favor of finding the statute
constitutional.’”
As
has become usual in state politics, the rulings were cast along
partisan lines. The three Republican judges ruled according to the
constitution, and the two Democrats on the panel ruled according to
political expediency.
The decision by a five-judge Commonwealth Court panel may be put on hold immediately due to an appeal by Governor Tom Wolf.
The Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement to Forbes it “disagrees with today’s ruling and is working to file an immediate appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.”
Pennsylvania’s
Act 77 that greenlit no-excuse, mass mail-in voting in 2019 was
actually a compromise forged between legislative Republicans and
Democratic Governor Tom Wolf. Republicans voted for it 27-0 in the
Senate, and 105-2 in the House. Democrats did not support it in the
Senate and split their votes against it in the lower chamber.
The
Pennsylvania Supreme Court itself played a controversial role in the
2020 election. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not
hear a case out of Pennsylvania related to the 2020 election and the
high court directed the lower court to dismiss the case as moot.
The
case concerned a federal court challenge to the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court decision that required election officials to receive and count
mailed-in ballots that arrived up to three days after the election.
The
justices had called for additional briefing that was not complete until
the end of March. The Democratic National Committee argued that the election was ‘over’ and
therefore justice did no longer mattered in the case.
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Author: patriotuproar
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