Mary Hannah Leavitt, president judge emerita of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, has set March 15 as the date when the mail-in ballot law will be stricken.
Leavitt wrote in the 12-page memorandum opinion, “Given the particular challenges of this election year, the Court agrees that the status quo ante should be preserved while the Pennsylvania Supreme Court considers the merits of the McLinko and Bonner decisions, which are listed for argument on March 8, 2022. For this reason, the Court will delay vacating the supersedeas until March 15, 2022.”
The State Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the appeal on March 8. Their ruling is the one that will ultimately decide the law’s fate. The Court has a 5-2 Democratic advantage, which makes it highly unlikely that the lower court’s ruling will stand.
The Commonwealth Court ruled in a 3-2 decision in January that the 2019 law that authorized mail-in ballots was unconstitutionally enacted by statute rather than put to voters as a constitutional referendum.
Leavitt, who wrote the original 50-page opinion, said the Republican officeholders who challenged the law are likely to prevail in front of PA’s highest court.
Terry Madonna, a political affairs professor at Millersville University, begs to differ.
“The Supreme Court is heavily Democratic, and the Commonwealth Court that struck it down is heavily Republican,” he told WFMZ-TV. “Make no mistake, I would be surprised if the Supreme Court allows the law to be struck down.”
The March 15 date allows county boards of election to notify voters of any change in the law with two months to go before the May 17 primary, wrote Leavitt. Counties would have to do it twice, were the Commonwealth Court’s ruling to take effect and then be overruled.
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19 Responses
NEWSFLASH — we already have vote by mail. ITs called an absentee ballot. AND it comes with signature matching – something the Fraud-UCrats despise – honest elections. Kudos to the judge! YOU CANNOT LEGISLATE from the bench. Thank goodness she is ruling by the statures that exist
The mail in ballots have signature matching too retard. You have to sign them just like you have to sign any official document for the ballot to be even be considered. The signature is compared to the one on your drivers license to see if it matches. How can you get to be so stupid
It should be 1 vote, per person, in person, on paper, at the pools unless you have a valid absentee ballot and the ballots should be counted at the precincts on election night. There will always be cheating, but if we do not restore some integrity to our elections we will never restore voter confidence. 43,000 More votes were counted than PA had voters, we can not allow this to happen, it is criminal. Our election should have never been certified according to the PA constitution. Let’s be fair to everyone.
If the PA supreme Court upholds the PA constitution (as is it’s job) then the mail in votes should go away. Our constitution allows 2 ways to vote in PA, in person and absentee and that is all!
SO TOTALLY AGREE! But one correction – there were 2.2 million ballots returned and 1.8 that were applied for. We have statistically MORE VOTES than VOTERS! FRAUDULENT election indeed
You need to quit watching OAN and Newsmax old boy.
Dee Pat
You are an idiot, liar, or both.
In 2020 there were 3.06 million ballot requests, and only 2.62 million returned and counted.
The list of 3 million requests was provided to both campaigns and updated daily from Sept through the Election.
dee pat has obviously not read the 67 PA counties’ boards of election reports, which found NO fraud and statewide found TWO voters using false id — and both of them were trump voters using dead relatives’ info. how such stupid comments continue to be made by people who walk and breathe utterly astounds me. of course, Dee Pat and her/his ilk are in the same voting bloc who think the trump org is being unfairly targeted for lying about its properties’ values. . .
No need for that Judge to issue that opinion. The fact is she is no longer a member of the Court as apparently she is on senior status. That Court has the distinction of being the only court in the country where Trump had a legal win – albeit for a few hours. That ruling is a direct slap to the Supreme Court as it will hear the case. If one is a serious lawyer, you could take either side here. Fact is the legislature knew it could be ruled unconstitutional but the GOP wanted to get rid of straight party voting and did not realize the implications of the rest of the legislation.
SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES !!!. Teddy will win even people vote by carrier pigeon
Why do stories on these 2 Courts always point out that the Supreme Court is majority Dem but not point our that the Commonwealth Court is overwhelmingly GOP? The sitting judges were 7-2 R before last years’ election, and 6-3 now. That Court is always ruling for the right wing–as with approving the current Congressional redistricting map with the least number of Dem districts possible. Their ruling here surprises nobody who is paying attention.
Commonwealth Court is currently 5-3 Republican. The seat previously held by now-Justice Brobson is vacant.
Democrats are gonna be pissed
Participatory democracy has to adjust with the times. This decision is akin to going back to 3 channels on tv and pretending nothing has changed. The logic for mail in voting is simple. If folks are not buying into the system then democracy declines. All of us posting and reading this note benefitted from democracy giving us a shot. We need to adapt to the times for as the legendary coach Phil Jackson said “the only constant in life is unceasing change.”
Put the MFer on the ballot and I guarantee you, WE THE PEOPLE will come down on the side of mail in voting. It should be like Oregon – 100% vote by mail. The old way of marching to the precinct is obsolete and you can’t get people to serve on the boards anyway.
the opinion is solid
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Terry is a Dem
The opinion is as solid as jello
dr. bob oughta go to law school not med school.
Leavitt is disingenuous and stupid, like her hero, Trump.
I think we should mirror Delaware’s law.