Court ruling puts mail-in voting on hold in Pennsylvania

Fox43 ^ | 28 Jan 22

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Friday's Commonwealth Court opinion declares Act 77 of 2019 unconstitutional, though an appeal is expected by the Department of State.

A statewide court says Pennsylvania’s expansive two-year-old mail-in voting law is unconstitutional, agreeing with challenges by Republicans who soured on mail-in voting after then-President Donald Trump began baselessly attacking it as rife with fraud in 2020′s campaign.

According to a Commonwealth Court filing released Friday, the court ruled that Act 77, allowing residents to vote by mail in Pennsylvania, violates Article VII, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania constitution. The Commonwealth Court denied the Pa. Department of State acting secretary's application for summary relief.

In the ruling, Commonwealth Court President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt 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.'" Friday's decision by a five-judge Commonwealth Court panel could be put on hold immediately by an appeal from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to the state Supreme Court.

The decision throws the state’s voting laws into doubt in a big election year. The three Republican judges agreed with Republican challengers. The two Democrats on the panel dissented.

[kvanbrunt2]

NYS under Cuomo instituted “no excuse” mail in for the 2020 election. I wonder if it violated our NYS Constitution. >>. PA constitution specifically says what absentee ballots are allowed. Religious holiday, out of state, working on elections. The Republicans voted for Act 77 and the ones running for senate and governor will not get my vote. Including Mastriano. sorry.

[kvanbrunt2]

What took the PA court so long to figure out the obvious???? Fizzano-cannon for one . She also stopped the school mask mandate. and the republicans voted for Act 77. Bi partisan you know.

[RideForever]

Legal procedure to remove illegally-seated officials, or officials caught in criminal acts, is a quo warranto ('by what authority'). Courts are out of it due to the plenary powers granted in the US Constitution between state and federal legislatures to determine election rules and results. A court can rule that election laws were broken or not, as in this case, and whether a fraud occurred, but final resolution rests with the legislatures. An example is the actions taken after our Civil War in denying states seats in Congress for a time. Today's problems are not from a Confederacy of states, but from a political party that should be de-certified for its bad manners.

The quo warranto needs to be filed in a fed district court requesting the removal of PA's U.S. Senators(D), and its Representatives 8(R), 6(D) until such time as a valid fed election is held in PA.

Why yes, it does end Pelosi's reign as Communist-in-charge of Congress.

[Zathras]

Its against the State Constitution.
The Fed has no say in it.

[Nifster]

Bam

[TheConservativeTejano]

Thank God that the Pennsylvania court put this mail in voting in the garbage.

Mail-in voting helps out the DemonRat party.