In a sweeping Victory for Democrats, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, issued Three significant Rulings, Thursday Sept. 17th, that: Extended the Deadline for Absentee Ballots; Allowed More Ballot Drop Boxes; and Removed the Green Party Candidate from the Presidential Ballot.
The Rulings come following Court Challenges from the State Democratic Party, which has been aiming to ease Pennsylvania's Absentee Voting Procedures amid the Pandemic, a Surge in Mail-in-Ballots, and to have the Green Party Off the Ballot due to its Potential to take Votes from Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.
One of the more Significant Changes set by the Court is Allowing Election Officials to Count Absentee Ballots received up to Three days after the Election, if they are Postmarked by Election Day. The Change means that Thousands of Pennsylvanians whose Votes would've been Rejected for Arriving after Election Day will now be Vounted.
The Trump Campaign and Pennsylvania Republicans had sought to Place a Hard Ban on Ballots arriving after Election Day. They also wanted to be able to Recruit Poll-Watchers from Neighboring Counties, but the Court Rejected that Request and Upheld a State Law Banning Out-of-County Poll-Watchers.
Sharif Street, a State Senato (D-3rd District), who's Vice Chair of Pennsylvania's Democratic Party, hailed the Decision as a Major Victory for the Party amid Postal Service concerns and Trump's Legal Challenges to Restrict Absentee Voting amid the Pandemic. "[I]n the birthplace of American democracy we are not going to have him (the President) turn it into the birthplace of Donald Trump's voter suppression," Street said Thursday following the Decision.
The Trump Campaign is still Challenging the State's Balloting Procedures in Federal Court, though it's Unclear what's left for a Federal Judge to consider now that the State Court has Decided.
In a 5-2 Decision, the Top Pennsylvania State Court Ruled that Green Party Candidate, Howie Hawkins, hadn't followed Proper Procedures when Submitting his Nomination Forms to get on the Ballot The Ruling Eliminates the Final hurdle Blocking Pennsylvania from sending out Absentee Ballots to Voters who Requested them. The State had been Stuck in a Holding Pattern while the Litigation played out in Court.
The Green Party "failed to comply with the Election Code's strict mandate" for how Nomination Paperwork must be Handled, and its attempts to Fix the Problem "did not suffice to cure that error," the Justices said in a 28-page Majority Opinion. As a result, "that defect was fatal" to Hawkins' Request to get on the Ballot.
Hawkins' Campaign Manager, Andrea Mérida Cuéllar, said the Democrats are playing "legal shenanigans just to knock legitimate competition off of the ballot. I think that they should be afraid of having Greens on the ballot because their party is not offering anything that the working class of this country is actually asking for. We are."
All Five Democrats on the Court Voted to Remove the Green Party, while the Two Republicans Dissented. The Decision came a week after a similar Ruling in Wisconsin, where Hawkins was also Kicked-Off the Ballot.
"[A]s soon as the ballots are changed, our printer will provide us with a test and we will make sure that everything counts accordingly and then we will start mailing out the ballot," Debbie Olivieri, Berks County Director of Elections, said. The County, which includes Reading, is a closely Contested Battleground. Olivieri said she had received Certification of the Final Ballot from the State about an hour after the Ruling. She said that as of Thursday, the County had just over 58,000 Total Mail-in-Ballot Requests.
The Ruling will also Force the County to Adjust Ballots that had already gone out to Overseas Voters. Saturday is the Deadline for Election Officials to send Absentee Ballots to Service Members and citizens Abroad. Olivieri said the County had already been Sending Absentee Ballots to those Voters and will now have to Send Updated Ones. "A lot of the counties had sent them out already; we were one of them. We will now make the updates to those ballots," Olivieri said. "There's no way we would have met Saturday's deadline if we didn't start that process already."
In a separate Ruling on Thursday, the High Vourt Rejected a Request from Democrats to Allow Third-Party Groups and Political Organizers to Collect and Return People's Absentee Ballots with their Permission, a Process called "ballot harvesting." The Justices wrote, "It has long been the law of this Commonwealth ... that third-person delivery of absentee ballots is not permitted."
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
