The basic overview of election governance in Pennsylvania is as follows:
THE BASICS
Pennsylvania modified its absentee/mail-in voting procedures for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:
For an overall summary of election policies in Pennsylvania, please click here. Please see the documents below for a comprehensive look at state election code and changes made after the 2020 primary.
As disinformation campaigns ramp up, some false claims and incendiary remarks were made about voting in Philadelphia at the first presidential debate. Concerns over resultant voter intimidation tactics have heightened in swing states as a response, and direct addresses have been made by officials in Pennsylvania, as well as here in Philadelphia.
Should you or anyone you know experience unlawful intimidation tactics, please consider the following contacts:
Voter complaint forms can be filled out here. If you have a more immediate need, please call the voter hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772).
PLEASE NOTE:
The reasons that poll watchers were not permitted to enter Philadelphia satellite election sites were in accordance with election law. Poll watchers do not have the same rights at these locations as they do at more traditional polling places.
Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar, No. 133 MM 2020, 2020 WL 5554644, 2020 Pa. LEXIS 4872 (Pa. Sept. 17, 2020).
Background: Democratic party, elected officials, and congressional candidates petitioned for review against Secretary of the Commonwealth and county election boards, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief regarding various aspects of mail-in voting and the poll watcher residency requirement. Secretary's application for the Supreme Court to exercise extraordinary jurisdiction was granted, and applications to intervene by Republican party and elected officials were granted.
Holdings: The Supreme Court, No. 133 MM 2020, Baer, J., held that:
1 Election Code permits county boards to accept hand-delivered mail-in ballots at locations other than their office addresses including drop-boxes;
2 three-day extension of absentee and mail-in ballot received-by deadline was warranted;
3 county boards were not required to provide opportunity to cure mail-in and absentee ballots that were filled out incompletely or incorrectly;
4 an elector's failure to enclose mail-in ballot in the secrecy envelope renders the ballot invalid; and
5 statute imposing residency requirement on being poll watcher did not violate due process, equal protection, free speech, and association rights.
Relief granted in part and denied in part.
Wecht, J., filed concurring opinion.
Saylor, Chief Justice, filed concurring and dissenting opinion in which Mundy, J., joined.
Donohue, J., filed concurring and dissenting opinion in which Saylor, Chief Justice, and Mundy, J., joined in part.
Crossey v. Boockvar, No. 108 MM 2020, 2020 WL 5554582, 2020 Pa. LEXIS 4868 (Pa. Sept. 17, 2020).
Petitioners' request that the received-by deadline for mail-in ballots be adjusted is DISMISSED AS MOOT based on this Court's decision in Pennsylvania Democratic Party, et al. v. Boockvar, K., et al., 133 MM 2020, in which this Court provided a three-day extension of the mail-in ballot received-by deadline.
Petitioners' request that prepaid postage be provided on mail-in ballots is DISMISSED AS MOOT as the Secretary of State, Kathy Boockvar, has [*4] announced that the Department of State will provide funding to county boards of election for postage on mail-in ballots. See https://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/State-Details.aspx?newsid=391 (published July 31, 2020).