A Pennsylvania state court on Friday ruled the state’s historic electoral law unconstitutional, dealing a temporary blow to access to vote in one of the country’s most critical battlefield states.
The law, known as Act 77, was passed in 2019 by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. registration deadline from 30 days to 15 and provided $90 million in election infrastructure upgrades. It also eliminated direct voting.
The opinion of Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, a Republican, sided with 14 Republican lawmakers who filed a lawsuit last year, arguing that the law was unconstitutional and that the legislature couldn’t make changes to voting laws without changing the constitution.
The bipartisan bill was praised by both parties when it was passed, but it became a target of conservatives during the 2020 election, when former President Donald J. Trump fired falsehoods and lies about postal voting. Eleven of the 14 lawmakers who filed charges against the bill had voted in favor of it in 2019.
Democrats said they weren’t surprised that the Commonwealth Court, which they say leans Republican, ruled against the law, and they have appealed to the state’s Supreme Court, which has sided with the state on voting issues both during and after the 2020 elections.
“This is just a continuation of attacking and undermining our electoral process,” said Democratic minority leader Jay Costa, Sen. He added that an appeal would be filed by the end of the day. “Law 77 will ultimately be considered constitutional.”