Blair County welcomes Supreme Court ruling on election
U.S. Supreme Court rejects plan for new rules on mail voting
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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Blair County leaders breathed a sigh of relief earlier this week after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a proposal introducing new rules for voting by mail in the November election.
The court's ruling means Blair and other Pennsylvania counties can continue following traditional vote-by-mail practices and procedures applicable to the Nov. 3 election.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said Tuesday that the court's Monday ruling was a victory for Pennsylvania voters.
"Any eligible Pennsylvanians who chose to vote by mail should have the confidence that they can continue to do so safely and securely," Schmidt said.
Commissioners Laura Burke, who chairs the county's elections board, and Dave Kessling said Thursday after their weekly commissioners meeting that they appreciated the court's ruling.
"The main thing is that it removes the uncertainty about the election," Burke said. "If more people would be coming in person to vote, that would overwhelm the staff."
Kessling offered a similar position.
"I'm grateful, too," he said, "because people don't realize the pressure that this would have put on the elections office."
The Trump administration had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for involving the U.S. postal system in ballot restrictions procedures prior to the Nov. 3 election where voters will have a say in who controls Congress.
The administration's proposal called for states to adopt a uniform envelope style for mail-in ballots and to submit a list of eligible voters to an online portal.
For states that fail to comply, the postal service could refuse to deliver the ballots.
"I think that the court saw that there was no way to implement that on our ends ... or to put in place the measures to absorb the people who would vote in person because they aren't going to put their ballot in the mail," Burke said.
Burke said there's already a lot of people who won't mail their ballot so a proposal like the one increases the likelihood of more in-person voters and longer lines at the voting polls.
Burke has been involved in the counting and the examination of Blair County's mailed ballots since 2020, her first year in office.
That was also the first year Pennsylvanians had the option of voting by mail for any reason, and many did because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's unfortunate that there's an effort to undermine people's trust in the mail (to vote)," Burke said. "That makes everything else more difficult."
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.