The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has delivered a victory to Democrats in a key case regarding mail-in ballots and the upcoming election day deadline. The ruling was 5-2 in favor of Democrats and grants an extension of three more days for ballots to arrive, provided that the ballots were postmarked before the polls closed.
The Democrats brought up the concept that postal services could face delays in a time where mass amounts of ballots were sent, and if any arrived late on behalf of a postal delay, that ballots could be invalidated by no fault of the voter.
The Supreme Court decision also effectively removes the Green Party’s presidential candidate from the November ballot, but that’s likely of little importance in the grand scheme of things when the majority of the focus appears to be on the three day extension the Democratic Party was granted, which would apply to all voters who use the mail-in ballots.
The recent report on AP stated that “in party-line decisions by the state’s elected justices, the court also said the law allows the use of satellite election offices and drop boxes by counties, and ruled that the Green Party’s candidate for president did not strictly follow procedures for getting on the ballot in November and cannot appear on it.”
As expected, there was a partisan element to the voting and lawsuits erupted over mail-in ballots.
The upcoming election could prove to be a massive scale experiment to see if the postal services can handle the number of mailed votes and have them delivered properly and on time.
Democrats and Republicans continue to clash with the concept of massive scale mail-in voting, with Republicans suggesting it could be used fraudulently, votes could be lost/stolen. Democrats sometimes suggest it’s voter suppression if mail-in votes are not allowed on the big scale. It’s an ongoing debate between political parties.