Editorial: Can we move on from Act 77 challenges now?

Pennsylvania’s expanded mail-in voting has been upheld by the state Supreme Court.

The ballots that were broadly used beginning in 2020’s presidential campaigns have been on a roller coaster ride of protest, overturn and appeal. Fourteen Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit in September 2021 arguing that the no-excuse mail ballots allowed under Act 77 were unconstitutional and needed to be outlawed.

Of those 14 lawmakers, 11 voted for Act 77, including Rep. Bob Brooks of Westmoreland County and Rep. Bud Cook of Washington County. Only Rep. David Zimmerman of Lancaster County opposed it. Two were not in office at the time.

Justice Christine Donohue’s majority opinion takes direct aim at the Commonwealth Court’s January ruling that such changes should have been made via constitutional amendment. Donohue struck it down with confidence that the state Legislature is allowed to make laws within the framework set up by the Constitution, claiming Act 77 stayed inside those lines.

Great, so is this the end of the challenges to a law that had bipartisan support when it was passed in 2019? Probably not.

The issue with this law is not an issue with the law itself. If it was, Brooks and company would not have voted for it. The issue — in 2020 and moving forward — is no one wants to play by the rules anymore, even when they agree to them up front.

The state’s down-to-the-wire vote counting handed the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and has sparked criticism, protests and lawsuits from former president and potential future candidate Donald Trump ever since. That has likewise inspired dissatisfaction with Act 77 from many Republicans in retrospect.

Pennsylvania lawmakers decided on this law. A law people on both sides were happy to support at the time and the governor was happy to sign — when does that ever happen in Pennsylvania? They voted on it. They were elected under it. It is time to accept that and stop challenging it.

Instead, the entirety of the General Assembly on both sides needs to stop looking in the rearview mirror because there are plenty of obstacles in the road ahead. Pay attention to the problems on the horizon, including changes that can be made to make upcoming elections run more smoothly.

Lawmakers and the courts have enough work to do without indulging in buyers’ remorse for a law passed three years ago and its impact on a two-year-old election.