Keystone Today

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania struck down Act 77 Friday, a 2019 law that permitted voters in the commonwealth to access no-excuse absentee ballots. 

Lawyers Democracy Fund, a nonprofit organization that backed the legal challenge to Act 77, celebrated the ruling. 

In a statement released Friday, LDF pointed to Article VII, Section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution which "expressly limits mail voting to only certain qualifying electors." The group claimed that Act 77 was a workaround to this constitutional provision without actually amending the state constitution.

Lisa Dixon, executive director of LDF told Keystone Today the timing of the case is significant. By bringing the case as far from an election as possible, she said the courts could rule on the underlying issues regarding voting without having to concern themselves with benefiting one candidate or party, or risking throwing out the ballot of any voter. 

“Today's decision was not a win for any party or candidate. Rather, it was a win for voters,” Dixon told Keystone Today. “In enacting the no-excuse absentee voting provisions of Act 77, the Pennsylvania Legislature ignored the state constitution and thereby ignored the voters.”

This opinion was underscored by the Commonwealth Court, who stated in its ruling that Pennsylvania's constitution "allows the requirement of in-person voting to be waived where the elector’s absence is for reasons of occupation, physical incapacity, religious observance, or Election Day duties."

Among comments, the court also pointed out that "no-excuse mail-in voting makes the exercise of the franchise more convenient and has been used four times in the history of Pennsylvania.”

About 1.38 million voters have expressed an interest in voting by mail permanently, according to the case document, though a constitutional amendment must be presented and adopted into law before legislation authorizing no-excuse mail-in voting can become a statute. 

WHTM/ABC27 reports Gov. Tom Wolf's Administration is likely to quickly appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which could stay the commonwealth court's ruling shortly thereafter. 

According to the report, the Department of State announced the ruling has “no immediate effect on mail-in voting” and that voters should request their mail-in ballots for the May primary election. 

The department also stated it is “notifying all county election boards that they should proceed with all primary election preparations as they were before today’s Commonwealth Court ruling,” ABC27 reports.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Friday afternoon tweeted his belief that the law would ultimately be upheld. In this, he said more than five million mail-in ballots have been cast by voters of both parties in the four elections since the bipartisan mail-in voting law was signed in 2019. 

At that time, he said, more Republicans voted for the passage of the law than Democrats.