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DSCC and DCCC Intervene Against GOP Efforts To Restrict Vote By Mail in Pennsylvania

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) are intervening against a Republican lawsuit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to invalidate Act 77, which provides Pennsylvanians the right to vote by mail.

Since Act 77’s enactment, millions of Pennsylvanians of both parties have cast mail ballots. For example, during the 2020 general election, 2.6 million of the 6.8 million Pennsylvanians who voted did so via mail and absentee ballot.

Republicans’ legal argument uses recent rulings by both federal and state courts that undated mail-in ballots must be counted as a pretext to challenge the entirety of Act 77.

From Christie Roberts, DSCC Executive Director: “In Pennsylvania voting by mail is hugely popular amongst voters of every political party and it was enshrined into law through a bipartisan supermajority. There is no valid reason to restrict this right of Pennsylvanians to easily participate in our democracy, and we will fight back against Republicans’ campaign of voter suppression with every tool at our disposal – including defeating them in court.”

From Tim Persico, DCCC Executive Director: “Pennsylvanians across the Commonwealth vote by mail, and their freedom to participate in our democracy should be protected. But Pennsylvania’s MAGA Republicans are hellbent on making it harder for people to vote because they know they’re offering voters a bad deal. Democrats are going to protect the right to vote for all and we’ll defeat this attempt to limit Pennsylvanian’s freedom in court.”

Key points from the motion:

  • “Act 77, which allows any qualified Pennsylvanian elector to vote by mail for any reason, was approved by a bipartisan supermajority of the General Assembly in 2019. Of the fourteen Petitioners—all Republican members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives—eleven voted in favor of Act 77.”
  • “The bill enjoyed bipartisan support, passing the House with a vote of 138-61, and the Senate, 30-20.“
  • “Now Petitioners are scrambling to undo this signature achievement. But rather than enact new legislation that reflects their evolving policy preferences, Petitioners seek to offload that task onto the judiciary. For the second time this year, Petitioners ask this Court to redline no-excuse mail voting out of the Election Code.”
  • Multiple Pennsylvania courts have found “the inadvertent failure to comply [with the dating provisions] does not require that ballots lacking a date be excluded from counting,” the “date Provision did not serve any ‘weighty interest’” and barred “counties from rejecting otherwise valid ballots for noncompliance with the Date Provision.”

The DSCC previously announced its “Defend The Vote” program, a multi-million dollar commitment to fight back against GOP voter suppression efforts in the U.S. Senate campaigns across the country.

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