Democratic National Committee (DNC) Executive Director Sam Cornale, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Executive Director Christie Roberts, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Executive Director Julie Merz and Pennsylvania Democratic Party (PA Dems) Executive Director Lisa Rhodes released the following statement after Republicans dropped their challenge to Act 77, which provides Pennsylvanians the right to vote by mail:

“In a solidifying victory for Democrats and Pennsylvania voters, Republicans have finally surrendered their latest baseless effort to attack Pennsylvanians’ popular right to vote by mail and obstruct the administration of elections. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to stop Republicans’ voter suppression tactics.” 

Additional background:

• Last week, Republicans dropped their latest challenge to Act 77, the 2019 law that introduced no-excuse mail voting in Pennsylvania. DSCC, DNC, DCCC and PA Dems had intervened to successfully defend the law.
   
• Following the 2020 election, after millions of Pennsylvanians relied on Act 77’s newly introduced mail-in voting procedures to exercise their right to vote, Republicans turned on the law they once supported and have since filed four lawsuits seeking to eliminate mail-in voting.
   
• In this lawsuit, 14 Republican Legislators, 11 of whom voted for Act 77, sought to strike down the law and eliminate no-excuse mail voting in its entirety.
   
• Previously on June 27, a lower court rejected the legislators’ interpretation of Act 77, finding no basis to eliminate mail-in voting, and recognizing that prior court decisions did not invalidate  the law in its entirety. In doing so, the court preserved the method of voting used by over three million Pennsylvanians to participate in the 2020 and 2022 general elections.
   
• Republicans then attempted to appeal their loss to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. But after the defenders of the law pointed out that the legislators missed the appellate filing deadline by two weeks, the legislators withdrew their appeal. This ends the case and solidifies the right to vote by mail for Pennsylvania voters.