Claims of widespread vote-by-mail fraud have been tweeted and retweeted by President Trump. However there is little to no evidence to back them up. NBCLX’s Chase Cain takes measures into his own hands to uncover the truth about mail-in ballots as part of his new series about election myths and conspiracy theories.
The Wolf administration on Thursday asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to keep the state’s mail-in voting law in place while the justices consider a lower-court ruling throwing it out.
If the Commonwealth Court's ruling stands, the 2-year-old voting law would no longer be in effect as of March 15 — a week after the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral argument in the case.
Lawyers for the Department of State and Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman argued in a filing that eliminating mail-in voting ahead of the spring primary season “would, if anything, only exacerbate voter confusion and the danger of disenfranchisement.”
Pennsylvania widely expanded mail-in voting in 2019 as part of a deal in which Republican legislative leaders successfully negotiated an end to straight-ticket voting in return.
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Mail-in voting proved very popular during the pandemic, particularly with Democrats, as nearly 5 million votes were cast by mail over 2020-21. As of August, nearly 1.4 million Pennsylvania voters were signed up for permanent mail-in voting notification.
Three Republican judges on a Commonwealth Court panel of five sided with Republican challengers andruled in Januarythat no-excuse mail-in voting is prohibited under the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The two Democratic judges on the panel dissented, writing that the constitution permits no-excuse under a provision that says elections “shall be by ballot or by such other method as may be prescribed by law.”
Politics
Before the 2019 law was enacted — with votes for it from some of the GOP lawmakers now challenging it — absentee voters had to quality based on a list of allowable excuses or have status as a military or overseas voter. The constitution does not explicitly say the Legislature cannot extend absentee voting to others.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday selected a congressional district map and said the May 17 primary would remain in place for those races and for statewide contests for governor, lieutenant governor and a U.S. Senate seat.
New maps for the General Assembly were produced earlier this month by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, but they are in limbo during a 30-day appeal period.
