Legislators’ lawsuit built on hypocrisy
Fourteen Republican members of the state House have filed a legal challenge to the law that allowed no-excuse mail-in voting — a law that 11 of those esteemed legislators supported two years ago.
Eleven of the 14Republicans challenging a law allowing noexcuse mail-in voting supported it two years ago.
In essence, they are asking the state Commonwealth Court to declare unconstitutional their own legislative actions.
Only in Pennsylvania, where politics and hypocrisy are forever linked, would you find a lawsuit this bizarre in nature.
The 2019 law, which received near-unanimous support in the Republican-controlled Legislature, provided for no-excuse voting by mail. The legislators now claim the law violates a constitutional provision that requires lawmakers to provide a way for people to vote if they are unable to do so in person for specific reasons. Those reasons include being out of town on business, illness, physical disability, Election Day duties or a religious observance.
The dubious challenge by this group of 14 is that the law — again, one that 11 of them approved —should be struck down because it allows people to vote by mail even if they do not fit into one of the specific reasons for not voting in person.
The Constitution does not explicitly say that the Legislature cannot extend absentee voting to others. And to be clear, other states use no-excuse mail-in voting and have done so for years.
Make no mistake: This is not a lawsuit prompted by concern for constitutional adherence. This is driven by the simple fact that state Republican lawmakers are unhappy with the overwhelming number of Democrats who used mail-in voting last November and helped Joe Biden capture Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes.
Of the 6.9 million votes cast in Pennsylvania last November, 2.5 million were done by mail-in ballot. And nearly two-thirds of those came from voters registered as Democrats.
It’s a scenario Republicans didn’t anticipate when they worked out a compromise with Gov. Tom Wolf in 2019. In exchange for allowing noexcuse mail-in voting, the option for voting straight-party was removed from the ballot, a move sought by Republicans.
What no one saw coming was the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 and a subsequent overwhelming demand for mail-in ballots by voters who did not want to risk voting at crowded polling places. In fact, state officials encouraged voting by mail, and millions took that advice.
The 14 Republicans challenging the law include four from Western Pennsylvania: Aaron Bernstine of Lawrence County, Timothy Bonner of Mercer County, Bud Cook of Washington County, and Bob Brooks of Westmoreland County. Mr. Bonner was not yet in office, but the other three all voted in favor of the 2019 law that allowed mailin voting.
Their lawsuit is the political equivalent of buyer’s remorse for approving a law they now regret.
The lawsuit is not about making elections fairer in Pennsylvania. Rather, it’s an attempt to take away a voting option that millions of state voters used in the last year and clearly will use again.
The courts should uphold the law, and the 14 legislators should turn their attention to the real issues facing the state rather than burden taxpayers with paying for another frivolous lawsuit.