Judge rules Pa. mail ballot date law violates political expression constitutional right
The decision by Erie-based U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter is the latest in a series on Act 77, which gave voters the option of voting by mail without an excuse for not going to the polls in person for the first time in 2020. It's also the second time Baxter has found the law impermissibly disenfranchises voters.
More: Pennsylvania lawmakers resume push to allow 1.3 million independents to vote in primaries
People who choose to vote by mail are required to complete a declaration including the date on the outside of the envelope provided to return their ballots. But voters often forget the date or write a date unrelated to the election, such as their birthdate. Such mistakes have caused tens of thousands of ballots to be disqualified even when they're returned on time. They often form the basis to challenge mail ballots in close elections.
In a lawsuit by the national Democratic congressional and senate campaign committees and the American Federation of Teachers against Pennsylvania's 67 county boards of elections, Baxter found the requirement serves no compelling government interest and doesn't justify infringing on voters' First Amendment rights.
She found no evidence to support 'nebulous' claims by Republican groups that intervened in the case that the date requirement bolsters voter confidence or preserves the solemnity of voting. While preventing voter fraud is less ambiguous, there's also no evidence the date requirement serves that purpose, Baxter said.
'Since there is no evidence that the date requirement serves any state interest, even a slight burden on voting rights cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny,' she wrote. 'Put another way, even the slightest burden that results from the enforcement of the date provision is too much when there is no counterbalance.'
Calls to attorneys for the Republican National Committee were not returned Monday.
More: When are Pa. elections happening in 2025? What's the voter registration deadline?
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton said the ruling was a 'victory for free and fair elections, protecting Pennsylvanians' constitutional right to participate in our democracy.'
'It's also a reminder that while Republicans continue their efforts to disenfranchise voters across the country, Democrats are ready to fight everywhere to ensure every legal vote is counted,' Shelton said.
More: Erie elections board didn't act in 'bad faith' after drop-box video overwritten: Judge
Last year, Baxter, who is a Trump appointee, ruled in a separate lawsuit the date requirement violated the Materiality Clause of the federal Civil Rights Act, which bans rules that prevent people from voting over meaningless errors on election paperwork. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Baxter's decision, finding the provision applies only when the state is determining who may vote and not to 'rules, like the date requirement, that govern how a voter must cast his ballot for it to be counted.'
The date requirement has also been the subject of a web of state court decisions that have, so far, failed to resolve whether the rule violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. In a case last October, the state Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue with the Nov. 5 presidential election fewer than 30 days away, citing the risk of confusion a change in the rules might cause.
In each of the earlier cases, the evidence established that counties stamp ballots with the date and time they are received to document that they arrived before the Election Day deadline.
The Supreme Court in January agreed to hear an appeal in a case from Philadelphia challenging the disqualification of mail-in ballots in a special election for the state House. The lower Commonwealth Court ruled just before the Nov. 5 election that the date rule violates the state constitution.
In her decision, Baxter noted the right to free expression at issue was separate from the 'core political speech' protected under the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court established a test to determine whether rules that infringe on political expression via the ballot are constitutional. That test balances whether the infringement is justified by an interest in orderly elections.
'The commonwealth has not identified what specific regulatory interest is furthered. Indeed, despite formal notification, the commonwealth has not defended the constitutionality of the dating requirement,' Baxter said, noting that most of the county boards of elections had not identified an interest in enforcing the date requirement.
Peter Hall has been a journalist in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 20 years, most recently covering criminal justice and legal affairs for The Morning Call in Allentown. Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, the nation's largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Judge rules PA ballot dating law violates right to free expression
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The Hill
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Bolivia elections expected to empower the right for first time in decades
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- After a lackluster campaign overshadowed by a looming economic collapse, Bolivians voted on Sunday for a new president and parliament in elections that could see a right-wing government elected for the first time in over two decades. The vote, which could spell the end of the Andean nation's long-dominant leftist party, is one of the most consequential for Bolivia in recent times — and one of the most unpredictable. In the run-up to Sunday, a remarkable 30% or so of voters remained undecided. Polls showed the two leading right-wing candidates, multimillionaire business owner Samuel Doria Medina and former President Jorge Fernando 'Tuto' Quiroga, locked in a virtual dead heat. Voting is mandatory in Bolivia, where some 7.9 million Bolivians are eligible to vote. 'I have rarely, if ever, seen a situational tinderbox with as many sparks ready to ignite,' said Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, founding partner of Aurora Macro Strategies, a New York-based advisory firm. The election is being closely watched across Latin America for its potential impact on the economic fate and political stability of this long-restive, resource-rich nation. It also marks a watershed moment for the Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, whose founder, charismatic ex-President Evo Morales, rose to power as part of the 'pink tide' of leftist leaders that swept into office across Latin America during the commodities boom of the early 2000s. Now shattered by infighting, the party is fighting for its survival in Sunday's elections. The outcome will determine whether Bolivia — a nation of about 12 million people with the largest lithium reserves on Earth and crucial deposits of rare earth minerals — follows a growing trend in Latin America, where right-wing leaders like Argentina's libertarian Javier Milei, Ecuador's strongman Daniel Noboa and El Salvador's conservative populist Nayib Bukele have surged in popularity. 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'People were waiting for a new, popular candidate, and in this, the opposition failed us,' said Ronaldo Olorio, a farmer from the coca-growing Yungas region who once identified as a fervent Morales supporter. 'My vote is one of anger, of discontent. I don't like Doria Medina or Quiroga. But I have to vote for one of the two.' Doria Medina and Quiroga have praised the Trump administration and vowed to restore ties with the United States — ruptured in 2008 when Morales expelled the American ambassador. They also have expressed interest in doing business with Israel, which has no diplomatic relations with Bolivia, and called for foreign private companies to invest in the country and develop its rich natural resources. After storming to office in 2006, Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, nationalized the nation's oil and gas industry, using the lush profits to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure and improve the lives of the rural poor. After three consecutive presidential terms, as well as a contentious bid for an unprecedented fourth in 2019 that set off popular unrest and led to his ouster, Morales has been barred from this race by Bolivia's constitutional court. His ally-turned-rival, President Luis Arce, withdrew his candidacy for the MAS on account of his plummeting popularity and nominated his senior minister, Eduardo del Castillo. As the party splintered, Andrónico Rodríguez, the 36-year-old president of the Senate who hails from the same union of coca farmers as Morales, launched his bid. Rather than back the candidate widely considered his heir, Morales, holed up in his tropical stronghold of Chapare and evading an arrest warrant on charges related to his relationship with a 15-year-old girl, has urged his supporters to deface their ballots or leave them blank. Dozens of coca-growing union activists formed a human chain around Morales to protect him from arrest as he cast his null-and-void ballot in Chapare, in central Bolivia. A large wreath of coca leaves hung around his neck. He flashed a rare smile as he left the polling station, shaking hands with supporters who showered him in white confetti. "I'm convinced that if there's no fraud, the null vote will win," he told reporters after voting. Whoever wins faces daunting challenges. Doria Medina and Quiroga have warned of the need for a painful fiscal adjustment, including the elimination of Bolivia's generous food and fuel subsidies, to save the nation from insolvency. Some analysts caution this risks sparking social unrest. 'A victory for either right-wing candidate could have grave repercussions for Bolivia's Indigenous and impoverished communities,' said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. 'Both candidates could bolster security forces and right-wing para-state groups, paving the way for violent crackdowns on protests expected to erupt over the foreign exploitation of lithium and drastic austerity measures.' If, as is widely expected, no presidential candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, or 40% of the vote with a lead of 10 percentage points, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff on Oct. 19 for the first time since Bolivia's 1982 return to democracy. All 130 seats in Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, are also up for grabs, along with 36 in the Senate, the upper house.
