Editorial: No-excuse mail-in voting is the law of the land

Fourteen Pennsylvania lawmakers are taking a stand against the law that let voters cast ballots by mail without providing an excuse. The legislators claim it is unconstitutional and needs to be wiped off the books.

The Republican state representatives come from all across the commonwealth and include Bob Brooks of Westmoreland County and Bud Cook of Washington County. They filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court seeking to overturn no-excuse mail-in voting.

Even under the most mundane circumstances, this could smack of sour grapes. The opportunity for any legislator to protest a law is on the floor of the chambers during committee discussions or open debate and ultimately when it comes down to voting.

To be fair, it’s not first time this kind of step has been taken. It’s becoming all to common by leaders of both parties.

But these grapes are particularly sour. Of the 14 lawmakers, 11 voted for Act 77 of 2019, the package of voting reforms that included mail-in voting. Two others weren’t legislators at the time. Only one, David Zimmerman of Lancaster County, voted against the law.

That means the law — which passed the House by a vote of 138 to 61, including most of the 113 Republicans — was apparently fine when it was passed and somehow deemed unconstitutional after the fact. Indeed, the state GOP was touting expanded mail-in voting leading up to the 2020 primary.

In 2020, the primary and general election had high mail-in turnout. The state, which went for Republican Donald Trump in 2016, tipped toward the Democrats, delivering the crucial Electoral College votes that swung the win to President Biden.

That bone of contention has ended up in court before, and the decision has gone against Republicans.

This time, the legislators are addressing the law itself. They are claiming the constitution allows the government to find a way to let people vote if they can’t, but the law is wrong because it lets them vote by mail if they want.

It wouldn’t be the first time a court case has turned on the questionable use of one word over another. It is more unusual that the lawmakers are using that argument themselves — in essence, saying they didn’t know what they were doing when they passed it.

Mail-in voting was not the problem in 2020. A lack of foresight by the Republican lawmakers in 2019 might have been. But changing the rules because the other team won is petty.

Instead of trying to repeal laws they liked until they didn’t like them, the lawmakers should turn their attention to creating and passing the best possible, most thoroughly thought-out laws that will help as many Pennsylvanians as possible and stand the test of time.