Pa. Supreme Court denies Mike Kelly, Parnell mail-in voting challenge

The state Supreme Court on Thursday denied an emergency motion to stay an earlier order about a challenge against Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting system.

On Wednesday, attorneys for U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and others filed the claim last month against Pennsylvania’s governor, General Assembly and secretary of state over Act 77, which authorized excuse-free mail-in voting in October 2019.

The denial allows them to now seek review in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Greg Teufel, who represents the petitioners, said that he planned to file a writ of injunction with the high court as soon as he got the order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Kelly, along with Sean Parnell, a Republican who challenged U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, in the general election, filed a petition in Commonwealth Court on Nov. 22 asking that all mail-in votes cast in the general election be thrown out. In the alternative, they contended that the entirety of the state’s election results should be tossed so that the General Assembly could appoint Pennsylvania’s electors in the presidential race.

They allege that Act 77 is illegal, and that the only way to broaden mail-in voting in Pennsylvania is through constitutional amendment.

Although the Commonwealth Court initially granted a stay in the petitioners’ favors, the state Supreme Court took the case and overturned that decision.

In their opinion, the court said that the petitioners needed to file a challenge to the act months earlier than they did — and not after two elections were conducted with the change in place.