RE: The judge does need to declare the mail-in ballots invalid if they violate the state constitution.
Well, the state constitution and OUR national constitution tells us that the LEGISLATURE writes election laws.
PA’s election law clearly states that ballots received AFTER 8 PM on Election Day WILL NOT BE COUNTED.
Two problems we’ll have to deal with:
1) The PA State Supreme Court in effect, re-wrote the law to make an exception due to the pandemic. The Supreme Court should decide that this is exercising powers BEYOND what the constitution allows.
2) Even if you could win a case on constitutional grounds, the problem becomes this — HOW DO YOU SEPARATE BALLOTS THAT WERE RECEIVED *AFTER* the legislated deadline from those that were submitted ON TIME? They’re mixed in right now.
Justice Alito gave a directive ordering the separation of ballots that were received AFTER the legislated deadline but this was IGNORED by the PA canvassers. Who’s going to pay the penalty for that?
If the courts determine (as they should) that Pennsylvania mail-in ballots are unconstitutional (as distinguished from legal absentee ballots), all mail-in ballots can be tossed, regardless of when they were mailed in.