JUDGING THE SYSTEM: BALLOTS, BENCHES AND THE FIGHT FOR FAIR ELECTIONS

For every issue we care about including reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and fair wages, it all starts at the ballot box.  Without fair access to the ballot, no other issue can be meaningfully addressed.  That’s why Republicans have spent years trying to undermine voting rights - especially mail-in voting. 
 
In 2019, they backed Act 77 when it helped them and then tried to overturn it in 2020 when the results didn’t suit them.  It was the PA Supreme Court (SCOPA) that stepped in, and defended the constitutionality of Act 77, and blocked the attempts to toss out valid ballots.  The Democratic court majority protected everyone’s vote when it mattered most.
 
And fighting over voting rights is still happening in PA.  Last year in Butler County, voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected cast provisional ballots only to have the GOP-controlled Board of Elections try to discard them.  Again, SCOPA intervened and ruled that those votes must be counted. 
 
Meanwhile, federal overreach is raising new alarms.  The Department of Justice has demanded sensitive voter data from Pennsylvania, including Social Security numbers and records of removed voters.  And looming over it all is Trump’s promise to ban mail-in voting by executive order.  It’s a direct attack on accessible voting, and it’s part of a broader strategy: suppress the vote, control the courts, and rewrite (or ignore) the rules. 
 
We’re not giving the final say to vote-suppressing hypocrites.