Mon Jan 31, 2022 – 8:00 pm EST
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (LifeSiteNews) – A state court stuck down Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law last week, declaring it unconstitutional and vindicating Republicans’ concerns about the legality of mail-in voting in the 2020 Pennsylvania election.
A five-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court ruled Friday that no-excuses absentee voting, which Pennsylvania adopted in a 2019 law titled Act 77, would require a constitutional amendment.
Writing for the majority, Judge Mary Leavitt said that “a constitutional amendment must be presented to the people and adopted into our fundamental law before legislation authorizing no-excuse mail-in voting can ‘be placed upon our statute books.’”
The Pennsylvania Constitution requires voters to cast ballots at polling places except in cases of illness, disability, observance of religious holidays, or “occupation or business.” The constitution exempts election workers as well.
Leavitt cited “binding precedent of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,” noting rulings in 1839 and 1923 that overturned laws attempting to expand absentee voting. Any legislation “that relaxes the in-person voting requirement must be preceded by an amendment to the Constitution,” she wrote.
The panel’s two other Republicans sided with Leavitt. Two Democrats on the panel dissented.
Act 77,
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