The Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended the deadline for accepting mail ballots, will allow ballot drop boxes and removed the Green Party's presidential candidate from the ballot — decisions that are likely to help Democrats this fall.
Mail ballots will now be accepted if they are received by 5 p.m. on the Friday after the election and were either postmarked by Nov. 3 or there is no evidence to suggest they were sent after Election Day. Previously, mail ballots had to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.due to postal service delays and election officials scrambling to manage the deluge of mail ballots because of the pandemic.
"While [the timeline] may be feasible under normal conditions, it will unquestionably fail under the strain of COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election, resulting in the disenfranchisement of voters," Justice Max Baer, a Democrat,Though the decision will enfranchise more voters — it will also mean that a final vote tally will take longer to certify. Under current Pennsylvania law, clerks cannot begin counting mail ballots until Election Day.
The ruling to give the legal green light to drop boxes is another win for the Democrats. The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop their use — but that case wasThe court's decision to prevent the Green Party candidate, Howie Hawkins, from appearing on the ballot, could also help Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In 2016, President Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes. Green Party candidate Jill Stein received nearly 50,000 votes.
In other rulings Thursday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court also upheld a state law that poll watchers must be registered to vote in the county where they're observing the polls.people from delivering other voters' absentee ballots — a practice Democrats call"community collection" and Republicans deem"ballot harvesting."that they are exploring legal and legislative options to circumvent the rulings.
"Today's decision makes Pennsylvania's elections less secure and opens the door to serious questions about the integrity of the process in one of the most significant national and state elections in recent memory," Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler and Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff wrote.this year, and with the election ticking closer, more litigation is likely ahead.
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