Yesterday I linked to a week-old story about how the chances of being alerted of a problem with your mail ballot and being able to cure it depended on where you live. It raises questions of unequal treatment of voters within the state. It’s a reminder of Bush v. Gore and its equal protection holding, though the Court was sure to caution that “The question before the Court is not whether local entities, in the exercise of their expertise, may develop different systems for implementing elections.” Still, if we have a razor-thin election in Pennsylvania, I expect there will be a lot of attention paid to these local disparities.
I was reminded of that this morning when I saw this amicus brief from the Public Interest Law Foundation (Christian Adams’ outfit) that seems to be about leaving a marker that variation across counties in treatment of such ballots might be seen to violate Pennsylvania’s free and equal clause in the state constitution. The brief ends: “The Foundation brings these matters to the Court’s attention with the hope that it will aid the Court’s consideration of the matters before it now, and in the future.” (Emphasis added.)
Keep an eye on this.