Pennsylvania Supreme Court Expands and Restricts Voting for 2020 Election

Pennsylvania voters must request ballots (Image from Flickr).

In the recent court ruling concerning PA Democratic Party vs. Boockvar on September 17, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a decision that allows for both the expansion and restriction of voting access in Pennsylvania. 

The ruling allows for a three-day extension to return mail-in ballots via the USPS and provides Pennsylvanians with ballot drop boxes, both of which could increase voter turnout. However, the ruling also states that “naked ballots,” or ballots missing a secrecy envelope, will not be counted in the election. 

According to CBS News, “[Pennsylvania’s] election code requires mail ballots to be received by 8 P.M. on election day to be counted.” This year, however, counties must accept the ballot up until the Friday following Election Day. 

Due to the high risk posed by the coronavirus, as well as the associated reduction of polling places, City Commissioner Al Schmidt tweeted that voters had already submitted more than 200,000 requests for mail-in and absentee ballots. The ballot drop boxes, set up in multiple locations around the state, will provide another avenue for voters than just mailing in their ballots.

The court’s third determination stating that naked ballots would not count has garnered the attention of many election officials and voting rights advocates who fear voter disenfranchisement. Pennsylvania, one of the sixteen states that require a secrecy envelope for the signed ballot, did count ballots missing this envelope during the May primaries. Nevertheless, in name of election security, the Supreme Court decided not to consider them for the upcoming general election 

However, according to CNN, “[i]n the 2019 General Election, about 6.4 percent of absentee ballots were naked, a rate that when applied to the November election could mean 30,000 to 40,000 ballots could be thrown out in Philadelphia alone and over 100,000 statewide.” Considering how President Trump won this state by only 44,000 votes in 2016, officials worry that this restriction could provide inaccurate results in such a competitive state.

Lisa Deeley, a Democrat who chairs the Philadelphia City Commissioners, wrote in a letter to Republican state legislators that “this is not a partisan issue. We are talking about the voting rights of our constituents, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, or independents, whose ballots will be needlessly set aside.” She continues by urging the legislature to support legislation to remove this requirement. 

Despite Deeley’s concerns, Philadelphia House Speaker Bryan Cutler’s spokesman stated that Pennsylvania Republicans have no intentions of changing course: “The Supreme Court was very, very clear in their ruling that the secrecy envelopes served an important purpose in ensuring the confidentiality of every ballot.”

Deeley also worries that this decision could potentially bring about a legal controversy in 2020 similar to that of Bush v. Gore in the 2000 and the hanging chad debacle.

The 2020 elections, not immune from the COVID-19 pandemic, has raised unprecedented challenges to the US electoral process. As voting begins and competition intensifies in the increasingly consequential state of Pennsylvania, this new ruling could significantly alter the results of this historic election.