Last Friday, the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court denied a case brought by activists, who argued that the Court should extend the deadline for the receipt of mail-in ballots because of fears that delays in the postal service might lead to ballots failing to arrive by Election Day. The court issued a per curiam opinion denying the case with prejudice, saying the fears raised by the plaintiffs were entirely speculative.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that courts should not intervene and rewrite election laws at the eleventh hour, and with good reason: Doing so risks confusion and chaos in our elections. Thankfully, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rightly rejected this case, which sought exactly that sort of last-minute rewrite of state law without alleging any actual harm.”
But Pennsylvania voters aren’t out of the woods yet. A similarly baseless lawsuit is still pending in a lower court, brought by the same Democratic Party attorneys responsible for suing to upend election integrity laws in more than a dozen states. “Pennsylvania lawmakers already acted expeditiously to adapt elections to meet the challenges of COVID-19 and to safeguard voters.” Snead said. “The fact that activists on the left are still bringing multiple lawsuits against the state shows what this is really about: it’s not about protecting voters, it’s about advancing a partisan political agenda through the courts that failed in the normal political process.”