Pennsylvania Courts Will Expedite Appeals in 2024 Election Cases
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday that will expedite the appeals processes for 2024 election cases in commonwealth courts ahead of November.
Currently, in cases involving Pennsylvania election law, parties have 10 days to appeal a court order or petition the commonwealth’s Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision, not including weekends and holidays.
Under the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s recent order, which takes effect on Thursday, parties will only have a three-day appeal period, which will include weekends and holidays.
Also, parties must file briefs explaining their appeal to the court within 24 hours of notifying them that they will be appealing the case. Additionally, to speed up the process, objections to a party’s appeal must all be stated in merits briefs and cannot be submitted to the court in separate motions.
Then, the Supreme Court said that in election law cases regarding the 2024 election, parties can’t ask a judge panel to reconsider their decision or ask a full court to hear arguments that were previously argued in front of a judge panel.
Pennsylvania’s highest court said these new procedures will remain in place until the court orders them to be changed.
The court finds its basis for this guidance in a section of a federal law — the Electoral Reform Act of 2022 — that mandates the appeals process in federal cases dealing with certification must be expedited.
There are multiple ongoing cases in Pennsylvania that would have large implications for the 2024 election — which is now less than 70 days away.
Many election cases are being appealed by pro-voting parties and if courts rule in their favor, that could increase voting rights for Pennsylvanians in the upcoming election. For example, a Pennsylvania judge ruled on Aug. 16 that Butler County voters will not be able to cure defective mail-in ballots that are missing inner secrecy envelopes — also known as “naked ballots.” On Aug. 20, two Butler County voters appealed this anti-voting decision.
The Supreme Court’s order doesn’t guarantee that election cases like this will be decided before the consequential presidential election, but it does make it more likely.