Keystone Today

The lawyer who argued successfully before Commonwealth Court that Act 77, the state’s 2019 no-excuse mail ballot law, was unconstitutional said that the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to reverse the lower court's ruling was an “outcome-based opinion.”

“We believe that we made a clear, concise and constitutional argument that permitting mail-in ballots required a constitutional amendment,” Philadelphia attorney Wally Zimolong told Keystone Today. “The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania agreed with our position and, unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not.”

“This is also a reminder that election matter and changes to Act 77 must be made at the ballot box," he added.

Wally Zimolong of Zimolong Law | Provided

On Aug. 2, the Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the Legislature did have the authority to permit no-excuse mail ballots, a law that was approved as a compromise deal between the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.

“The Legislature has the authority to provide that votes can be cast by mail by all qualified electors,” the court ruled. “The only restraint on the legislature’s design of a method of voting is that it must maintain the secrecy of the vote.”

Republican legislative leadership later regretted sending the Legislation to the governor, citing the Secretary of State’s application of the law after the pandemic hit.

“There have been numerous concerns raised about the way Act 77 was implemented by the Department of State, especially the double standard created by the removal of key mail-in ballot security measures in lead-up to the 2020 election,” Senate President Jake Corman (R-Centre) said in a statement cheering the Commonwealth Court ruling in January. “After what occurred in the 2020 and 2021 elections, I have no confidence in the no-excuse mail in ballot provisions.”

National elections expert Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said that the high court “ignored the plain language of the Constitution.”

“This is only the latest blow to the rule of law in Pennsylvania,” Snead told Keystone Today. “A recent federal court ruling to ignore state law and count undated ballots has prompted doubts about what election laws are in effect, and has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the price of the left’s relentless anti-democracy campaign to force states to weaken their voting laws.”