Do post marks come with time of day now? Been a while since I looked at one and I don't have a letter on hand.

 

So, your original post is wrong. "Received by" and "postmarked by" are two wildly different things.

 

There was a State Supreme Court ruling granting an extension of time for absentee ballots citing USPS delays.


https://www.statesman.com/news/20201...n-election-day

This is a paragraph from the above article.

Pennsylvania law requires all ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. But citing United States Postal Service delays, the state Supreme Court last month extended the deadline for this election so ballots can be received by mail until 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, if they are either postmarked by Election Day or have missing or illegible postmarks.

This looks to be where the confusion lies on counting the votes in question or not.

 

I will let this guy make the call.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has issued a temporary order requiring Pennsylvania elections officials to segregate ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day.


Here is the PA department of state explanation of act 77 changes. Where it says unless changed by a court: that is the part that will be litigated because the constitution doesn't allow for courts to change election laws, only the legislature.

Voters who wish to vote absentee or by mail must still apply for a ballot, which may be done electronically through the Department of State’s website or by paper application. Applications for mail-in or absentee ballots must still be received by the county no later than 5 p.m. on the Tuesday before the election, but the time frame for ballot return has been extended. The deadline for a county to receive a mail-in ballot or regular civilian absentee ballot has been extended to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Mail-in ballots or civilian absentee ballots received after this time will not be counted unless a court has extended the deadline.

The wording is somewhat murky at different places in the PA statutes. Some places mention post marks with respect to absentee ballots but it is pretty clear on mail in having to be in the office by 8pm Tuesday.

 

What would be unconstitutional about allowing time for the USPS time to deliver ballots, they still have to meet the postmark requirement?

 

Yes that’s pretty much it. Though I believe the State Court just upheld or allowed the extension that the election officials enacted.

The problem is that according to the US constitution legislatures must set the laws in the state for elections not members of the executive branch So when the election official changed the deadline they may have broken the law.

I guess we will see soon enough when it goes in front of the SCOTUS.

 

The republican's argument is that the State Supreme Court did not have the authority to make that change. That'll be the court battle. Emerson is wrong about the law but is having trouble swallowing the pill.

 

Quote Act 77 where it says that. My quote of Act 77 makes it perfectly clear about being postmarked by 8PM election day.

 

The constitution puts election laws exclusively in the hands of the state legislatures. The state Supreme Court cannot change election laws.

This stupid post delay makes it really hard to have a nice conversation.

 

Do post marks come with time of day now? Been a while since I looked at one and I don't have a letter on hand.