From PA Capital Star:

The law, known as Act 77, was declared unconstitutional in a 3-2 January decision by the state’s Commonwealth Court, as it ruled on two challenges to the law — one brought by the Republican lawmakers, as well as a separate one from Bradford County Commissioner Doug McClinko.

Act 77 was approved in a deal between the GOP-controlled General Assembly and Democrat Wolf, in which the General Assembly passed no-excuse absentee ballots, and Wolf agreed to eliminate straight-ticket voting. The bill also provided funding to counties to replace decertified voting machines. It passed with near-unanimous Republican support.

But a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel that initially invalidated the law ruled that universal mail-in balloting should have been passed as a constitutional amendment, which requires a referendum, rather than as a statute signed into law.”…

Wolf attorney Wigyul also pointed to the wide bipartisan support for Act 77, though justices appeared unconvinced by such an argument.

“I’m not sure why overwhelming support in the Legislature is deserving of deference,” Justice Kevin Brobson, who was elected as a Republican last November, said.

Still, the fact that 11 GOP lawmakers who once voted for the law now challenged it, also piqued the justices’ interest.

Under questioning Tuesday, the legislators’ attorney, Gregory Teufel, said that the legislators voted for Act 77 at the time because they were ignorant of the law’s “constitutional infirmity.”

“This is an epic and fundamental change none of us can deny, and the Pennsylvania voters have the right to have a say whether we amend it this way,” Teufel said. “It is not just up to the legislature to decide it this way.”

At first, Act 77 was hailed as a bipartisan win. However, Trump spent most of his reelection campaign attacking, without evidence, the integrity of mail-in voting. Then, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Democratic voters used mail-in ballots en masse. …

Republican voters, led on by Trump and his allies’ rhetoric, have soured on mail-in voting.

However, GOP leadership in Harrisburg so far hasn’t backed a full repeal of Act 77, only proposing to tighten verification and return requirements for mail-in votes, among other broader changes to the state election code.

Without legislative action, the GOP House lawmakers filed their suit in September 2021.