Good article pulling down Hawley's argument on the floor
after the entire Congress was put into jeopardy. He thought this argument was a reason to not certify Pennsylvania.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/josh-hawley-pennsylvania-bob-casey-mail-in-voting-ballots-2020-presidential-election/2659177/
A 2019 change to the voting law is unconstitutional under the state law? The writer makes a good argument why it is constitutional, but a more important reason that this is insane IS THAT THIS ARGUMENT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE IN 2019. The article doesn't mention laches but that seems to be the most important factor.
The argument that U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, delivered early Wednesday in the recently-stormed Capitol building during the certification of the Electoral College revolved around the constitutionality of the state's mail-in voting. He did not challenge the state's actual election results, unlike President Donald Trump, who attacked without evidence the vote count for months.
"You have a state Constitution that has been interpreted for over a century to say that there is no mail-in balloting permitted, except for a narrow circumstances that’s also provided in the law," Hawley said.
He argued, in essence, that Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled legislature did not have the right to pass a law in 2019 that allowed universal mail-in voting.
Instead, according to Hawley this week and the lawsuit denied by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, mail-in voting could only be allowed through a constitutional amendment.
Some legal experts disagree with that interpretation and the argument has yet to receive a favorable opinion in court.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, also disagreed in his own speech early Wednesday with Hawley's reading of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
"The law in question, Act 77, was passed in 2019 and implemented without any serious question as to its constitutionality," Casey said. "It was only after the 2020 presidential election when it became clear President-elect Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by a little more than 80,000 votes did some Republican politicians in our state decide to challenge the constitutionality of the law."
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