Democrats have won a case in Pennsylvania that protects the Keystone State’s broad vote-by-mail law that Republicans have been trying to strike down.
In the lawsuit filed last year, 14 current and former Republican state lawmakers said the court must invalidate the law because two earlier court decisions triggered a provision written that says the law is “void” if any of its requirements are struck down in court.
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But the Commonwealth Court, in a 24-page opinion, unanimously found that the court decisions did not invalidate “the dating provision” of the law. It dismissed the lawsuit, in favor of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration and the national and state Democratic parties.
In a joint statement, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Representative Suzan DelBene, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chair Senator Gary Peters, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison, and Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Senator Sharif Street said, “Democrats have successfully fought back against Republicans’ ongoing and baseless efforts to attack Pennsylvanians’ popular right to vote by mail and obstruct how elections are administered. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to protect the ability of all Pennsylvanians to exercise their right to participate in our democracy and to oppose Republicans’ voter suppression tactics.”
Republicans realize that they have decreased odds of winning statewide in Pennsylvania if the state’s voters continue to have easy access to casting their ballots by mail. It is easy to vote by mail in PA, and millions of the state’s voters, including this author, have switched to casting their ballots in this manner.
The problem for Republicans is that vote by mail has driven up the state’s turnout in all elections and led to a state that tilted blue becoming a more solid blue. Elections in Pennsylvania are very close, but the ease of ballot access has tipped narrow elections toward Democrats.
Republicans passed and supported the vote-by-mail law when they thought that it would give them an advantage, but the success in mobilizing voters has had the GOP scrambling to undo the law.
Ballot access is a democratic issue, and the ruling in Pennsylvania is a reminder that the courts are the front line in protecting the right to vote.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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