“No-excuse mail-in voting makes the exercise of the franchise more convenient and has been used four times in the history of Pennsylvania. Approximately 1.38 million voters have expressed their interest in voting by mail permanently,” wrote commonwealth court judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, who authored the ruling.
“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,’” she continued.
The ruling came out of a consolidated lawsuit, including a challenge brought by more than a dozen Republican lawmakers in the state — some of whom initially voted for the expansion of mail voting in 2019.
Since then, Republicans across the country have targeted mail voting. In Wisconsin, a lawsuit from a conservative organization banned the use of dropboxes in the state temporarily, before a higher court stayed that order earlier in January.
“Big news out of Pennsylvania, great patriotic spirit is developing at a level that nobody thought possible,” Trump said in a statement celebrating the Pennsylvania ruling. “Make America Great Again!”
Over 2.6 million Pennsylvanians voted via the mail in the 2020 general election, according to the state’s elections department. That number includes both no-excuse mail voting and absentee voting. Absentee voting in Pennsylvania is similar to mail voting and has existed for years, but voters need a valid excuse — like an illness or being out of the area on Election Day — to use it. Absentee voting is unaffected by Friday’s court ruling.
Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
