With lawsuit dismissed, Pa. Republicans file appeal to try and overturn mail-in voting law
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Unhappy with their latest legal setback in trying to have Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law thrown out, Republicans are now appealing to the state Supreme Court.
On June 27, a state Commonwealth Court judge denied the request of 14 current and former GOP legislators to invalidate Act 77, which 11 of them supported when it passed in 2019.
As the Associated Press reported last week, the courtroom loss was just the latest by Republicans trying to overturn mail-in voting that former President Donald Trump has attacked with election fraud lies since he lost the state to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has said that more than 7.5 million Pennsylvanians have voted by mail over the past three years.
The 14 Republicans had argued in their lawsuit that Act 77 should be tossed because two previous court decisions triggered a provision that voids the law if any requirements are invalidated by a court.
In this case, the law requires that voters hand date the outer envelope of their mail-in ballot so that it is valid, but Republicans had claimed that two previous court rulings that refused to enforce that requirement activated the provision to throw out the entire law.
However, the Commonwealth Court thought otherwise and dismissed the lawsuit.
One of the GOP plaintiffs on the lawsuit is state Rep. Barb Gleim of Cumberland County, who voted for Act 77 but is now trying to get it invalidated.
Gleim released a statement on Wednesday saying she supports the appeal because of the previous court ruling that said the mail-in envelope dating requirements violated the Civil Rights Act and could not be enforced.
“Because a part of the law was deemed to be in violation of our civil rights by the courts, then the entire law should be invalid,” she said in a statement. “Yet, the courts are continuing to allow the law to stand.”
York County state Reps. Dawn Keefer and Mike Jones are also plaintiffs on the lawsuit who voted for Act 77.