In the last week of March, two court decisions gave insight on Pennsylvania election protocol.

First.

On March 26, a U.S. District Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by 27 Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers.

They wanted to reverse Governor Josh Shapiro’s automatic voter registration announcement- which registers Pennsylvanians when they get a new/renewed driver’s license with PennDOT.

The lawsuit also opposed executive orders from President Joe Biden and a directive from former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf; those also related to voter registration.

The lawmakers argued that regulating elections is a task given to state legislatures by the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions (page 3 of the court document), and that executive actions taken on elections caused individual harm by usurping lawmakers’ rights.

The court dismissed the case, stating precedent shows that individual harm could not be proven or is outlined in the Constitutions (page 27).

Governor Shapiro responded to the dismissal with a statement.

"Automatic voter registration is safe, secure, efficient, and entirely within my administration’s authority,” said Shapiro.

The Second Case

On March 27, the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a ruling about mail-in ballots, saying that undated or misdated ballots CAN be thrown out.

Pennsylvania’s NAACP, and other non profits, sued the state in 2022 after 10,000 mail-in ballots were not counted; that was based on state law saying a mail-in ballot must be dated.

The lawsuit relied on the Materiality Provision- which says minor paperwork errors can’t block a person from voting. The written date on mail-in ballots are not used to confirm the timeliness of the ballot. 

In a 2-1 decision, appeals judges said that provision is for qualifying who can vote, not regulating how citizens vote.

In a phone call, Representative Kathy Rapp approved the Appeal Courts decision.

"It’s not just a feel good thing. It’s the law,” said Rapp. "We are lawmakers. So we should be doing whatever we can to uphold the law. Dates are important. So those dates are very important, when they were signed, sealed, and delivered."

If the NAACP wanted to appeal the appeal, the case would have to be accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Several state officials estimate that this year will see high, if not record breaking, amounts of lawsuits and open record requests related to elections.