by Charlie Wolfson
Universal, no-excuse mail-in voting has survived a court challenge in Pennsylvania and will live on after an eventful first year on the books. But a look back to its creation through its critical role in the 2020 election offers a window into how policy and politics can shift on a dime.
“Everybody thought this was a good idea — a great idea, in fact — until Trump spoke out against it,” said Joe Mistick, a law professor at Duquesne and local political commentator.
Act 77, the Pennsylvania law that legalized no-excuse mail-in voting, came together in 2019 as a compromise between the Democratic and Republican parties. Republicans achieved their goal of abolishing straight-ticket voting, which Democrats agreed to in order to obtain the vote-by-mail expansion.
Mistick said the law made Pennsylvania “a symbol, an example of bipartisanship, of how the two parties can come together for the good of the franchise and set aside their political differences.”
A lot has changed since then.
Republicans at the highest levels of government, led by Donald Trump, are denouncing a policy Pennsylvania Republicans overwhelmingly approved just over a year ago.
How did Act 77 come together in the first place? What do the lawmakers who approved it think now? A wider view shows that mail-in voting, before Trump began attacking it, was an uncontroversial and bipartisan idea. And despite recent opposition, it appears to be here to stay in Pennsylvania.
Mail-in ballots received by Allegheny County before Election Day 2020. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)
Read Entire Article At:
Trump politicized mail-in voting in 2020, but it came to PA with strong Republican support
About Post Author
