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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Republicans seeking to invalidate all ballots without excuse in the state. The state Supreme Court said the dismissal was based on the “petitioners failing to file their facial constitutional challenge in a timely manner.”
The decision lifts a reprieve that was put in place earlier this week, which prevented the Commonwealth from certifying a number of races from the November 3 election. The presidential race had already been certified when the suspension went into effect.
The plaintiffs, which included State Congressman Mike Kelly and Republican candidate Sean Parnell, had attempted to argue that a 2019 law, Section 77, which allowed postal voting without excuse, was unconstitutional .
But in a concurring opinion, Judge David Wecht wrote that the “petitioners could have brought this action any time between October 31, 2019, when Governor Wolf signed Bill 77, and April 28, 2020, when this Court retained always the exclusive competence. on the constitutional challenges against him. “
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the decision “another victory for democracy.”
“The PA Supreme Court has dismissed the lawsuit which tried to reject the votes of 2.5 million Pennsylvanians and stop certification”, Shapiro tweeted.
The Trump campaign has attempted to mount several court challenges in Pennsylvania that have been consistently dismissed by the courts. Earlier this week, the third circuit court of appeal rejected a call from the Trump campaign that alleged the secretary of state and some counties were restricting poll observers and unfairly allowing voters to fix technical issues with their mail-in ballots. This trial had been thrown by a federal judge last week.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote in a scathing order that the plaintiffs had used “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, not substantiated in the operational complaint and not supported by evidence.” In the United States of America, that cannot justify the denial of the right to vote of just one voter, let alone all the voters in its sixth most populous state. “
Zak Hudak contributed reporting.
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