WITF: PA Republican Congressmen ask courts to invalidate state election law.
Public radio WITF details a new lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania’s Republican members of the US House to challenge Pennsylvania’s election law. A similar lawsuit was dismissed last winter but this is a new attempt to question how Pennsylvania registers state voters.
The suit challenges Pennsylvania’s “automatic voter registration” policy enacted by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2023, as well as a 2018 order barring counties from immediately rejecting a voter’s registration in cases where a voter’s ID card numbers don’t match those in a government database.
The lawsuit embraces the controversial theory that only state legislatures – not the US Congress, not the Justice Department, nor any one else – may review state election policies. This could lead to rolling back voting rights and civil rights established by Congress in the 1960s. In legal circles, this is known as the “independent state legislature theory.” The strategy is often embraced by Republicans in states where the state legislature has a Republican majority.
The list of Pennsylvania Republicans include:
· Congressman Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster
· Congressman Dan Meuser,
· Congressman Scott Perry
· Congressman Guy Reschenthaler
· Congressman Mike Kelly
· Congressman Glenn Thompson and
· Congressman John Joyce, MD