BEFORE: HONORABLE PATRICIA A. McCULLOUGH, Judge OPINION NOT REPORTED MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE McCULLOUGH FILED: November 27, 2020 IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA The Honorable Mike Kelly, Sean Parnell, Thomas A. Frank, Nancy Kierzek, Derek Magee, Robin Sauter, Michael Kincaid, and Wanda Logan, Petitioners v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania General Assembly, Honorable Thomas W. Wolf, Kathy Boockvar, Respondents

 

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BEFORE: HONORABLE PATRICIA A. McCULLOUGH, Judge 

OPINION NOT REPORTED 

MEMORANDUM OPINION 

BY JUDGE McCULLOUGH 

FILED: November 27, 2020 

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA 

The Honorable Mike Kelly, Sean Parnell, Thomas A. Frank, Nancy Kierzek, Derek Magee, Robin Sauter, Michael Kincaid, and Wanda Logan, Petitioners 

 v. 

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania General Assembly, Honorable Thomas W. Wolf, Kathy Boockvar, Respondents 

No. 620 M.D. 2020 

FROM HONORABLE PATRICIA A. McCULLOUGH, Judge, MEMORANDUM OPINION: 

The “Safe Harbor” provision of 3 U.S.C. §5 does not expire until December 8, 2020, and the Electoral College does not vote for president and vice president until December 14, 2020. Additionally, Petitioners appear to have established a likelihood to succeed on the merits because Petitioners have asserted the Constitution does not provide a mechanism for the legislature to allow for expansion of absentee voting without a constitutional amendment. Petitioners appear to have a viable claim that the mail-in ballot procedures set forth in Act 77 contravene Pa. Const. Article VII Section 14 as the plain language of that constitutional provision is at odds with the mail-in provisions of Act 77. Since this presents an issue of law which has already been thoroughly briefed by the parties, this Court can state that Petitioners have a likelihood of success on the merits of its Pennsylvania Constitutional claim.