Northhampton News

Mail-in voting is essential in Pennsylvania, state Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia), said, after a court ruled that parts of Act 77, allowing vote-by-mail, are unconstitutional.

“Since the adoption of Act-77 we have seen vast increases in voter participation through the vote-by-mail process," the senator tweeted. "To eliminate it is to disenfranchise people. The provisions of Act 77 are constitutional and should be upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.” 

A Commonwealth Court majority struck down Act 77. saying that the state's constitution should have been amended before making a change in the voting process to allow mail-in ballots, PennLive reported.

The state has appealed the ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the story said. In the meantime, Act 77 remains in force, the Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement.

"The Department of State has a simple message today for Pennsylvania voters: Today’s ruling on the use of mail-in ballots has no immediate effect on mail-in voting," it said in the statement. "Go ahead and request your mail-in ballot for the May primary election. Voters who are on the annual mail ballot list might recently have received in the mail, or will soon receive, the annual application from their county. They should complete and return the application to affirm that they want their county to send them a mail ballot for all 2022 elections."

The department has notified all election boards that they should not make changes based on the Commonwealth Court ruling.

"Since mail-in ballots were first made available by historic bipartisan legislation, more than 4.7 million of these ballots have been cast by Pennsylvania voters," the department said. "The Department stands by the use of this secure, convenient and accessible method of voting."