Keystone Today

A Pennsylvania trial judge has ruled that the 2020 election may have been unconstitutional in the state and state legislators are authorized to choose electors.

In an opinion issued on Nov. 25, Judge Patricia A. McCullough said a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs claiming the 2020 election in Pennsylvania was unconstitutional has merit.

The plaintiffs in the case alleged that a law enacted last year (Act 77) that amended various absentee and mail-in voting provisions in Pennsylvania is unconstitutional because it contravenes certain requirements outlined in the state’s constitution.

According to the Pennsylvania Constitution, the proposed constitutional amendment must go through a series of steps before it can be enacted. 

The first step is for it to be approved by majority vote by both the House of Representatives and the Senate in two consecutive legislative sessions. Then it must be published in two newspapers in each country for three months before the next general election. Then, it must be submitted to the qualified electors as a ballot question at the next general election and then passed by a majority vote. Only then can the proposed amendment be passed into law. This procedure was not followed by the legislature, the plaintiffs alleged.

McCullough ruled that the plaintiffs’ case has merit.

“Petitioners appear to have a viable claim that the mail-in ballot procedures set forth in Act 77 contravene Pa. Const. Article VII Section 14 as the plain language of that constitutional provision is at odds with the mail-in provisions of Act 77,” McCullough wrote. “Since this presents an issue of law which has already been thoroughly briefed by the parties, this Court can state that Petitioners have a likelihood of success on the merits of its Pennsylvania Constitutional claim.”

The plaintiff filed an emergency injunction to prevent votes from being certified in the state.