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PA court rules ‘no-excuse’ mail-in voting unconstitutional – Trump feels vindicated

January 29, 2022 | | Print Article

Former President Donald Trump celebrated the “BIG news out of Pennsylvania” after a court ruled that a no-excuse mail-in voting law was unconstitutional.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court struck down the law which was signed by Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) in 2019. The panel of three Republicans and two Democrats found that Act 77, allowing residents of Pennsylvania to vote by mail without an excuse, can only stand if it is passed as a constitutional amendment rather than a piece of legislation.

Long a critic of the voting system there, Trump has been very vocal about the problems with the state’s mail-in system which allows voters up to 50 days before an election to cast their ballot via the mail.

“The practice of no-excuse mail-in ballots, put in place by Democrats right before the stolen 2020 Election, has been ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court,” the former president said in a statement through his political action committee.

“Here is the key question: If widespread mail-in balloting is unconstitutional in Pennsylvania now, how could mail-in balloting have been constitutional in the RIGGED 2020 Presidential Election then?” Trump wondered.

“We all know the answer—it wasn’t! All American Patriots are thanking the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania for having the courage to do the right thing!” he concluded.

Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt wrote on the Pennsylvania court’s 3-2 decision on Friday:

“No-excuse mail-in voting makes the exercise of the franchise more convenient and has been used four times in the history of Pennsylvania.”

“If presented to the people, a constitutional amendment to end the Article VII, Section 1 requirement of in-person voting is likely to be adopted. But 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,'” Leavitt wrote.

Pennsylvania’s Democrat governor has appealed the decision and the law will remain in effect until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court hears the case.

“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,” Wolf said in a statement after the ruling.

The court’s decision has also sparked some questions about the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.

“The decision throws Pennsylvania’s voting laws into doubt as the presidential battleground state’s voters prepare to elect a new governor and a new U.S. senator in 2022,” the Associated Press reported. “Just over 2.5 million people voted under the law’s expansion of mail-in voting in 2020’s presidential election, most of them Democrats, out of 6.9 million total cast.”
Frieda Powers
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