Pa. Democrats vow to keep fighting for mail voting after Supreme Court ruling creates uncertainty as November approaches

A Supreme Court decision on mail voting has created uncertainty with less than 70 days until critical midterm elections, but Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to reassure voters that they’ll have the option to cast a ballot by mail.

More litigation over this highly-watched issue is expected and further rulings could still come even after November, impacting the next presidential election.

“We will continue to fight at every stage — including in the Supreme Court the moment they attempt to implement this — to make sure every eligible Pennsylvanian can cast their ballot by mail, free from federal interference,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat and attorney who also sits on the county’s election board.

The procedural update, issued Monday, does not rule on the underlying legality of President Donald Trump’s March executive order that directed the U.S. Postal Service to help decide which voters should receive mail ballots but rather whether lower courts had the authority, at this stage, to block it.

Pennsylvania was among the states suing to block the order.

Revival of the debate about the availability and security of mail voting, and this temporary clearance, however, may instill doubt among voters that their ballot will be received and tabulated, Makhija said.

“With just weeks until ballots go out, last minute federal interference sows chaos for the voters we serve,” he said.

Trump’s efforts to restrict mail voting, part of his longstanding grievance against the system despite repeatedly utilizing the method himself, are still working through the courts, and several experts doubt the proceedings will move fast enough to impact the November elections when four swing districts in Pennsylvania could help determine control of the U.S. House.

“Whatever may ultimately happen in this litigation, I’m pretty skeptical that anything is going to change for this November’s election,” said Ben Geffen, staff attorney at the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia, a nonprofit group that monitors election issues.

States across the country will soon begin preparing applications and sending ballots out to voters.

Pennsylvania voters, who can cast a ballot by mail for any reason, must complete an application by Oct. 27, and all ballots must be returned by Nov. 3 at 8 p.m, according to the Department of State’s website.

“Turning that battleship around in a matter of days is extremely unlikely,” Geffen said.

A spokesperson for the Department of State said the ruling does not change Pennsylvania law, and voters should be confident that counties will continue to ensure eligible voters can cast their ballot by mail.

“The USPS action is not lawful, and we will continue to challenge that rule to ensure that Pennsylvania voters can have their voice heard – whether they vote in person, on demand, or by mail,” Geoff Morrow, the department spokesperson, said.

Geffen’s advice for those concerned is to start early. Get your mail ballot application in right away, and as soon as you receive your ballot, fill it out and return it. For now, you can still send your ballot through the U.S. mail. But you can also drop it off at your county election board, and many counties after satellite locations and drop boxes.

If you prefer to vote in person on Election Day, go in the morning, he said.

“You have options for how to vote, and you will get to vote. Nobody’s taking away the election, and just jump on it early,” he said.

After Trump, through his directive, ordered the Postal Service to withhold mail ballots to individuals who are not on an approved list, which he instructed states to develop in order to prevent noncitizens from voting, Shapiro promised to protect Pennsylvanians’ right to vote by mail. In April, he used his power as governor to join other Democratic states in a lawsuit that argued the order violated states’ constitutional power to carry out elections.

On Tuesday, Shapiro emphasized his commitment to protecting mail voting in a post on X.

“Nothing has changed here in Pennsylvania for November’s election,” he wrote. “Despite the President’s repeated attempts to undermine our Constitution, eligible voters in Pennsylvania can safely and securely vote by mail — and I’ll keep fighting in court to protect our state election laws.”

The unions representing postal employees also criticized Trump’s push to restrict mail voting as November approaches.

A statement from the National Association of Letter Carriers, the union that represents about 200,000 postal workers throughout the country, underscored their dedication to delivering ballots reliably and securely.

“Any insinuation that voting by mail is not safe and secure is severely misguided. Letter carriers have securely delivered ballots for decades, and there is no evidence that the existing system requires substantial changes,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in the statement.

Gwen Ivey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, Local 89, which represents between 1,300 and 1,400 U.S. clerks in Philadelphia who process mail, maintenance employees and drivers who transport mail, also warned against inserting the postal service into decisions over voting.

“The postal service is a public institution that serves the American people,” Ivey said Tuesday. “It should not be placed in a position of determining who is entitled to participate in elections or becoming an instrument for restricting access to the ballot boxes.”

Trump has long railed against mail voting, referring to the ballots as “crooked” in his State of the Union address and suggesting they amount to cheating. But his 2024 victory in Pennsylvania was thanks, in part, to a higher rate of mail voting by Republicans.

It’s particularly useful for seniors and voters in rural areas — often with strong Republican bases — where voters may live far from their nearest polling location.

“If you want to win, mail it in, that’s our message to our Republican voters,” then-Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas said, two years ago. The Pennsylvania GOP has not responded to a request for comment for this story.

Pennsylvania Republicans have, however, been more supportive of Trump’s SAVE America Act, an election reform proposal, stalling in Congress, that he insists will make voting more secure though most election experts say new guidelines in the legislation would make it harder to vote.

A spokesperson for Sen. Dave McCormick, who has repeatedly championed the SAVE Act, did not respond to a request for comment on the court ruling.

A separate, but similarly Trump-aligned bill supported by House Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie — two of the four incumbents in the state’s competitive congressional districts — would ban universal mail voting and require mail ballots to be received, not just postmarked, by Election Day to be counted.

Neither lawmaker immediately commented on the Supreme Court ruling Tuesday.