Pennsylvania Supreme Court Upholds Mail-in Voting Law By Democracy Docket

In 2019, Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved Act 77, a law that overhauled the state’s elections. Act 77 eliminated straight-ticket voting, extended the deadline for mail-in ballots, lengthened the voter registration period and more, but most notably, it established no-excuse mail-in voting. Just a few years later, some of the very same lawmakers who pushed for the law now argue that the one portion they no longer like, mail-in voting, is unconstitutional. That illogical crusade was brought to a halt on Tuesday when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the no-excuse mail-in voting provisions of Act 77.   This began back in July 2021 when a member of the Bradford County Board of Elections and a group of Republican legislators — 11 of whom had voted in favor of Act 77’s passage — filed two lawsuits challenging the law. The cases, consolidated under McLinko v. Degraffenreid, argued that the Pennsylvania Constitution only allows individuals to cast ballots by mail if they fall into a specific category of voters. In January 2022, a lower court held that the no-excuse mail-in voting law violated the state constitution. On appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision, holding that “[w]e find no restriction in our constitution on the General Assembly’s ability to create universal [no-excuse] mail-in voting.”    A separate lawsuit challenging Act 77’s mail-in voting for different reasons is ongoing, but this is great news for Pennsylvania voters. No-excuse mail-in voting has been an uncontroversial reform for several decades; close to 30 states now permit it. We are also keeping a close eye on two lawsuits — one of which was filed this week — against Delaware’s freshly enacted vote-by-mail law.