By BO MYERS – Student contributor
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended the due date for a mail-in ballot for General Election on Nov. 3. The decision will likely lead to more votes being counted in this year’s election, and possibly more time to determine election results. Taking up to three days to have the full results of the General Election.
Previously in Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots were due by the time polls closed on election day, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling completely changed that. Thursday’s court order now adds a three-day extension on to the previous deadline. Ballots with a pre-election postmark will now be counted as long as they are received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, three days after the polls close.
Also written in the court’s ruling, “ballots received within this period that lack a postmark or other proof of mailing, or for which the postmark or other proof of mailing is illegible, will be presumed to have been mailed by Election Day unless a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that it was mailed after Election Day.”
The Pennsylvania State Democratic party sued to have the deadline pushed back, and the ruling is a major victory with Pennsylvania being a big presidential swing state.
The court’s ruling also declared that ballot drop boxes are legal within the state.
President Donald Trump’s campaign has sued in federal court to block drop boxes, and a federal judge put the case on hold while state officials consider the issue.
In Pennsylvania, and all across the country, election officials are bracing for a massive influx of mail-in ballots, because many people are seeking alternative ways to vote during the pandemic.
That makes it likely that voting results in Pennsylvania released on the night of the election will not be conclusive.
Republicans have slammed the decision as democratic lawmakers are praising the court’s decision.
The United States Sen. Patrick Toomey posted a tweet with the remarks: “Once again, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided that laws have no meaning.”
In that statement he added: “The current state election statute, which was signed by Governor Wolf less than a year ago, is clear that mail-in ballots must be received by 8:00 PM on Election Day in order to be counted.”
“Today’s blatantly political decision to violate the law irresponsibly heightens the risk that our state will experience a lengthy, disputed, and controversial outcome in what is expected to be an extremely close presidential race.”
Sharif Street, a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia, who is vice chair of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, had this to day about the court’s decision: “In 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.”
We are now 40 days away from the General Election and the ground rules are just now beginning to be laid.
Also, in big election news Thursday, the state Supreme Court booted the Green Party presidential ticket off of the ballot. It determined that the party had not fulfilled the technical requirements to be on the ballot.
Bo Myers is a student at Cranberry High School and a member of Cranberry Chronicles, the school’s journalism/publications class.
