Courting Votes (chapter summary)

Political incentives surrounding mail-in voting shifted sharply in 2020, as Democratic officials increasingly embraced expanded vote-by-mail amid pandemic conditions while Republican leaders raised concerns about its susceptibility to fraud. Primary Election patterns, including substantial reliance on mail-in ballots among Democratic voters, reinforced strategic calculations that procedural flexibility in mail voting could influence turnout dynamics in the General Election. A series of pre-election legal challenges sought expanded use of drop boxes, extended ballot receipt deadlines, relaxed treatment of secrecy envelope requirements, removal of the Green Party from the ballot, and prohibition of signature verification as a basis for ballot rejection, resulting in pivotal rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that materially altered statutory procedures. The cumulative effect of these judicial interventions, combined with legislative gaps in Act 77, reshaped ballot collection, verification, and distribution rules and timing shortly before the election, raising questions about administrative uniformity, procedural stability, and the broader implications of resolving electoral policy through litigation rather than legislative design.