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-Land of the Free
Pennsylvania Court Rules Mail-in Voting Unconstitutional, a Win for Election Integrity
2022-01-29
[Breitbart] Three conservative judges on a five-court panel struck down Pennsylvania’s 2019 expanded mail-in voting law that reportedly permitted 2.5 million people, the majority of them Democrats, to cast votes in 2020.

Basing their decisions on election laws passed in 1839 and 1923, the court ruled the legislature’s law unconstitutional. Pennsylvania’s constitution would have to be changed to allow mail-in voting, the court held.

"The Pennsylvania Constitution requires a qualified elector to present her ballot in person at a designated polling place on Election Day, except where she meets one of the constitutional exceptions for absentee voting," the ruling reads.

In 2019, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to permit mail-in ballots for additional reasons, such as illness and physical disability, which the judges deemed unconstitutional under the state constitution.

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) immediately announced he would appeal the decision to the state’s supreme court. "The Administration will immediately appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court and today’s lower court ruling will have no immediate effect on mail-in voting pending a final decision on the appeal," he said.

The ruling comes as Pennsylvania residents will elect a new governor and a U.S. senator in a hotly contested battle amid a 50-50 split senate. The ruling may impact the November election.

Donald Trump, who lost to President Biden in Pennsylvania by 1.2 percent, issued a statement in celebration of the news. "Big news out of Pennsylvania, great patriotic spirit is developing at a level that nobody thought possible. Make America Great Again!" he said.

Of the 6.9 million votes cast in 2020, 2.5 million of them were mail-in ballots, and most of those mail-in votes were cast by Democrats, according to NBC 10 Philadelphia.

Republican candidates and Trump supporters made this case in late 2020, unsuccessfully attempting to litigate the issue around Election Day. They alleged that Biden and other Democrat candidates benefited from ballots that were not legal, and that Democrats shouted down the idea that any of these Pennsylvania ballots were improperly cast, calling it part of "the Big Lie."

Pennsylvania is not the only state to rule in favor of election integrity. In January, a judge ruled absentee ballot drop boxes used in the 2020 presidential election are unlawful in Wisconsin:
Posted by:Besoeker

#9  PeeAye will probably never have another Republican governor. So, it's gone.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2022-01-29 15:31  

#8  Republican candidates and Trump supporters made this case in late 2020, unsuccessfully attempting to litigate the issue around Election Day. They alleged that Biden and other Democrat candidates benefited from ballots that were not legal, and that Democrats shouted down the idea that any of these Pennsylvania ballots were improperly cast, calling it part of "the Big Lie."

Breitbart, tell me what happened to that effort? C'mon, tell the whole story.

IIRC, SCOTUS ruled that the litigants had no standing. What does that even mean? Isn't that an easy what to get out of making a decision? Isn't that an easy way to avoid doing the right thing?
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2022-01-29 15:18  

#7  I would like to see a 'constitutional convention' emitting a text that includes the current 1 - 10 plus:
all voting shall be in-person with proof of residence and
no criteria shall include color or shape of skin
Posted by: irish rage boy   2022-01-29 14:00  

#6  List of Current Justices (Wikipedia): The last two elected (Sallie Updyke Mundy, 2017 and P. Kevin Brobson, 2021) are Republican. The previous five are listed as Democrats.
Posted by: trailing wife   2022-01-29 13:15  

#5  PeeAyeSC tilts dem. No help there.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2022-01-29 11:53  

#4  The decision now goes to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

I hate looking on Supreme Courts as super-legislatures as much as anyone else; but that is the role they have arrogated to themselves, and so I ask: Didn't we get a new conservative judge on the PSC last November who replaced a liberal? And so does not the PSC now have a conservative majority?
Posted by: Tom   2022-01-29 11:51  

#3  Therefore, lacking an amendment, the election was illegal.
Posted by: Xyz   2022-01-29 08:37  

#2  What he said is that the process required amending the state's constitution rather than the enactment of a statute.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2022-01-29 08:30  

#1  So the last Presidential election in PA was unconstitutional? I find this ruling very untimely.
Posted by: Airandee   2022-01-29 05:20  

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