Act 77, passed by legislators and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf in late 2019, allowed mail-in voting without requiring a specific excuse five months before the pandemic hit.
, which both found “The court could not have been clearer about the precise issue that is before this court today. The ballot cannot be sent by mail.”
However, he said he believes voting in-person allows fairness in elections, despite the discriminatory past of the practice. Democrats argued the constitution’s allowances for mail-in, such as being out of town on business, are a minimum that does not prevent the Legislature from expanding them to apply to more people.previously rejected challengesArguments continued to revisit the phrase—”shall offer to vote,” or presenting one’s ballot to election officials—and whether it means voting in-person or merely presenting one’s vote by mail to election officials.
But getting such an item on the ballot could be difficult to impossible. The Legislature continues to be controlled by Republicans, and any constitutional amendments must pass the Legislature twice, in two consecutive sessions, before going to voters for a statewide referendum.