A state court has ruled a Pennsylvania law for mail-in voting unconstitutional and has struck it down. This sounds like great news, but the future prospects don’t look good for the ruling.
First, the good news:
A statewide court on Friday declared that Pennsylvania’s expansive two-year-old mail-in voting law is unconstitutional, agreeing with challenges by Republicans who soured on mail-in voting after then-President Donald Trump began baselessly attacking it as rife with fraud in 2020′s campaign.
The decision throws the state’s voting laws into doubt as voters prepare to elect a new governor and a new U.S. senator in 2022.
“Baselessly”. Yeah, it’s the AP.
Now the bad news:
The decision, by a five-judge Commonwealth Court panel of three Republicans and two Democrats, could be put on hold immediately by an appeal from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to the state Supreme Court.
The three Republican judges agreed with Republican challengers, saying that no-excuse mail-in voting is prohibited under the state constitution and the constitution must be changed to allow it.
The two Democrats on the panel dissented. The state Supreme Court has a 5-2 Democratic majority.
With the state court having a Democratic majority, this ruling is probably doomed. But who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and the Democrats on the state Supreme Court will agree with this ruling.
I know, it’s wishful thinking. I’m just trying to be optimistic since it’s Friday.