A new lawsuit targets Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot deadline

HARRISBURG — A new lawsuit, filed Thursday, is challenging Pennsylvania’s court-ordered deadline to count mail-in ballots that are received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election in the presidential battleground state.

Plaintiffs include a Republican congressional candidate and four registered voters from Somerset County.

The lawsuit comes 12 days before the election and three days after the U.S. Supreme Court, divided 4-4, rejected a Republican plea making a similar argument.

Both sought to block a state Supreme Court ruling that required county election officials to receive and count mailed-in ballots that arrive up until Nov. 6, even if they don’t have a clear postmark, as long as there is not proof it was mailed after the polls closed.

Thursday's lawsuit argues that the deadline extension is unfair to in-person voters and violated the court's authority by exercising a power that is constitutionally vested in Congress and the state Legislature.

With about 2.9 million mail-in ballots requested, registered Democrats have requested about 1.1 million more mail-in ballots than Republicans, or 1.8 million to 700,000, according to state data.

The Democratic majority on the state’s high court had cited warnings that postal service delays could invalidate huge numbers of ballots and surging demand for mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic to invoke the power, used previously by the state’s courts, to extend election deadlines during a disaster emergency.