Aug 2, 2022 - Politics & Policy
Pennsylvania Supreme Court upholds state's mail-in voting law
Ivana Saric
A woman deposits her ballot in an official ballot drop box at the satellite polling station outside Philadelphia City Hall in Oct. 2020. Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images
In a 5-2 decision, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled to uphold the state's mail-in voting law, allowing voters to vote by mail in all future elections.
Why it matters: The decision overturns a lower court's decision in January that the state's mail-in voting law was unconstitutional.
The big picture: The state's mail-in voting law was passed in 2019 but became a focal point of Republican attacks from former President Donald Trump and his supporters in the wake of the 2020 election. President Biden won Pennsylvania.
Before the 2019 law, the mail-in voting option was available for individuals unable to vote in person for specific reasons, but the 2019 law allowed for no-excuse mail voting for all voters.
What they're saying: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that the state's constitution did not "establish in-person voting as an elector qualification or otherwise mandate in-person voting," Justice Christine Donohue wrote the majority opinion.
"We find no restriction in our Constitution on the General Assembly's ability to create universal mail-in voting," Donohue added.
Go deeper: GOP primary turns into a war over mail-in voting