AG Schmitt Files Brief Regarding Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballot Decision
/Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, along with nine other state attorneys general, filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court allowing mail-in ballots to be received three days after Election Day, even without postmarks.
Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of our republic - Attorney General Schmitt
The brief makes three main arguments. First, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overstepped its authority and encroached on the authority of the legislature in ruling that ballots received three days after election can be accepted, including ballots with an illegible postmark or no postmark at all.
Second, that voting by mail can create risks of voter fraud, including in Pennsylvania. And lastly, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision exacerbated these risks of absentee ballot fraud.
To support the first point the brief states that the decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: “(1) admitted that the Legislature’s Election Day deadline was unambiguous, (2) conceded that the Election Day deadline was constitutional on its face, (3) relied on the slimmest of evidentiary rationales for its decision, (4) departed its own prior holding on the exact same question just a few months earlier, and (5) disregarded an admirably clear severability clause that was enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature for the very purpose of preventing Pennsylvania courts from making such post-hoc changes to Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting system.”
To support the second and third arguments regarding voter fraud the brief cites precedents from previous Supreme Court cases. Additionally, the brief cites several previous examples of voter fraud by mail in or absentee voting, including:
In November 2019, the Berkeley, Missouri Mayor Ted Hoskins was indicted on five felony counts of absentee ballot fraud. Mayor Hoskins allegedly went to the homes of elderly residents to harvest absentee ballots and altered absentee ballots after he had procured them from voters;
In May 2020, the leader of the New Jersey NAACP called for a new election for a city council position in Paterson, New Jersey citing allegations of vote-by-mail fraud.
In 2016, Hector Ramirez, a candidate for Assembly in the Bronx, was indicted on 242 counts related to voter fraud. Prosecutors alleged that Ramirez wrote his name in on forged absentee ballots;
A 2018 federal Congressional race in North Carolina was overturned after political operatives were indicted and arrested for absentee ballot fraud. The charges alleged that the operatives improperly collected and potentially tampered with ballots to swing the close election in their favor;
A 2016 State House race in Missouri was overturned and a special election was ordered after allegations of absentee ballot fraud surfaced.
“Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of our republic and make the United States the envy of nations across the globe,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “To keep those elections free and fair, we must ensure that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is not. To not do so would disenfranchise millions of Americans.”
Along with Missouri, attorneys general from Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Florida also signed on to the brief.
KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story
