The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has halted Act 77, the 2019 law that introduced mass “no excuse” mail-in voting for the first time, saying that such a law must be made through a Constitutional amendment and not by legislation. Act 77 is widely blamed for the chaos that roiled Pennsylvania’s election in 2020.
Former mayor and congressman Lou Barletta, leading Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, issued the following statement:
“Now we know that not only was Act 77 a terrible law, it was also unconstitutional and shouldn’t have been passed in the first place. Most states that go to widespread mail-in voting take years to implement the process, but in Pennsylvania, we went from under 300,000 people voting by mail in 2016 to over 2.6 million in 2020. Local elections officers weren’t trained, equipped, or staffed to handle the flood of ballots and the result was the chaos that we all saw.
“If Act 77 remains on the books after court appeals are exhausted, I will repeal it as governor, because I believe mail-in voting should be preserved only for those who cannot vote on Election Day. In addition, we should require sound signature matching and identification for every voter and clear the rolls of people who have died or moved out of state. These are common sense ideas that promote integrity in our elections and enjoy widespread public support.”
Original source can be found here.
