Pennsylvania Legal Case Election
Three justices disagreed with the court`s decision in June of this year to uphold the 3rd District decision in effect so the county could count undated ballots. In a statement echoed by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, Alito wrote that the 3rd District`s opinion was “probably wrong” and that he had expedited the case so that the judges could hear oral arguments and decide the dispute before the November 2022 election. “Ultimately, this is the most significant modernization of our election law in decades,” Corman said at the time, according to The Associated Press. Ritter told the Supreme Court that if the 3rd District decision was not erased from the books, it would allow undated absentee ballots to be counted in future Pennsylvania elections and “threaten to override countless absentee voting regulations nationwide.” Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania echoed Ritter`s warning. “The Republican-controlled legislature passed Bill 77 in 2019 with strong bipartisan support to make voting safer and more accessible, and millions of Pennsylvanians passed it,” Wolf said. “The simple fact is that despite Republicans` near-unanimous support for this historic update to Pennsylvania`s election law, they now want to abolish absentee voting in the service of the `big lie.` The Third District said the requirement in the state election law to require a date next to the voter`s signature on the outside of return envelopes was “irrelevant.” That lower court said it found no reason to refuse to count the ballots set aside in the Nov. 2, 2021 election for the Lehigh County judge. Recommended citation: Amy Howe, Justices vacate lower court decision in Pennsylvania stimmvol-counting case, that is now disputed, SCOTUSblog (Oct. 11, 2022, 21:52), www.scotusblog.com/2022/10/justices-vacate-lower-courts-ruling-in-pennsylvania-ballot-counting-case-that-is-now-moot/ “A majority of this court has already decided that the General Assembly said what it wanted to say and wanted to say what it said: the date requirement is mandatory, and everyone Non-compliant ballots cannot be counted in any election after the 2020 parliamentary elections,” the submission reads.
Those votes were enough to lead Democrat Zac Cohen to victory in the race. He has since been sworn in, and the new U.S. Supreme Court ruling is unlikely to overturn Cohen`s campaign results. They asked the court to decide immediately whether undated or misdated ballots should be counted, as this could have implications for the midterm elections. Undated ballots have been contested in every election since 2020, when voters were given the opportunity to vote for the first time by mail without any reason not to vote in person. Tuesday`s brief order granted a request from David Ritter, a candidate for judicial office in a local Pennsylvania court in 2021. Ritter had previously asked the court to temporarily block a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling for the 3rd Circuit that allowed the local board of electors to count absentee ballots that violated a state law requiring voters to write the date on the ballot envelope.
The Court of Appeals agreed with a group of voters that the state law violated a provision of federal civil rights law that prevents states from denying the right to vote because of an error or omission that is not “essential” to the voter`s qualifications. The absentee without excuse law is the result of a cross-party compromise: Democrats were able to legalize the expansion of mail-in voting and Republicans succeeded in abolishing direct voting. In the most recent ruling, the justices ruled 7-2 that the Third District should “dismiss the case as contentious.” Many Republican-led states have adopted stricter voting rules, including for mail-in voting, following Republican Donald Trump`s 2020 re-election to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump made false claims that the election was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud. In the 2020 election, more Democratic than Republican voters cast ballots by mail. Although the state Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the date requirement was mandatory, it did not consider whether it violated civil rights law. Two Commonwealth Court decisions ordering election officials to count undated ballots were based in part on the Federal Court of Appeal`s decision, which was overturned. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court similarly challenged the state`s expanded election law after the 2020 presidential election. The Republican plaintiffs demanded that all absentee ballots be thrown away afterwards. The court dismissed the action on the grounds that it had been filed too late. The Pennsylvania State Department had previously asked counties to count these undated ballots in the midterm elections. In an unsigned statement released Tuesday night, the department said, “We are reviewing today`s order, but the order emphasizes the importance of consistent state guidelines that voters must carefully follow and review all instructions on their mail-in ballot before returning it.” But Republicans disagree.
On Sunday, Republican groups filed a so-called King`s Bench petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking it to take over the case immediately. Voss had argued before the Supreme Court that the judgment of the Third Judicial District was already cited in other cases, but should be declared irrelevant. “I don`t know anything `probably` because it would require a close race. So it`s possible? Yes. Probably? I don`t know. Remember that those ballots made the difference in Ritter`s race, that`s why the case existed,” Voss said. The State Department should definitely update its guidelines,” Voss said. “But at the end of the day, elections are administered by counties, and counties need to assess the state of the law.” And when they acceded to the request on Friday, they fast-tracked the case, setting a deadline of Monday for Republican groups to submit their arguments and Tuesday for the Pennsylvania State Department, Democratic groups and 67 county election committees to respond. In a one-paragraph ruling, the judges overturned the 3rd District decision and sent the case back to the lower court, ordering that the dispute be dismissed as contentious — that is, there is no longer any living controversy. Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they rejected Ritter`s request and upheld the 3rd District decision. Shapiro stressed in his statement that the court`s decision would have “no immediate impact” on the upcoming elections. The state is holding gubernatorial and U.S.
Senate elections this year. A series of state and federal court lawsuits have created a murky legal landscape in which Democrats, using a series of court rulings, say undated ballots must be counted — and Republicans who use another say they must be rejected. In an order issued Tuesday afternoon, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered county election commissions to “separate and preserve all ballots contained in undated or improperly dated outer envelopes.” The Commonwealth court`s decision “should serve as a call to action to open a serious conversation about the reforms needed to make voting accessible and safe for all Pennsylvanians,” Corman said in a statement. “Governor Wolf has ignored this debate for over a year, but I hope this decision will help him get back to the negotiating table so we can address concerns about our electoral system once and for all.” It is unclear how many undated ballots there will be in the parliamentary elections.