Court Cases

The ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center, and ACLU’s Voting Rights Project have filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit over the federal government’s demand that Pennsylvania turn over its entire voter registration rolls, including with voters’ sensitive personal data such as drivers’ license numbers and partial social security numbers. The motion to intervene was filed on behalf of seven Pennsylvania voters, many of whom were the target of baseless mass challenges to their mail ballots during the 2024 election cycle that resulted from faulty data-matching techniques. The voters’ experiences have heightened their concerns about the privacy of their voting data. Other plaintiffs are two non-partisan, good government organizations dedicated to voter engagement: the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Common Cause. If intervention is granted, the civil rights groups will seek to prevent the federal government from forcing Pennsylvania to turn over the entirety of its voter registration database and to protect sensitive data within the voter rolls.

Seven voters, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and the Washington Branch NAACP sued the Washington County Board of Elections for concealing from voters errors they had made on their mail ballot return envelopes that meant their votes would not be counted in the 2024 primary election.

ACLU-PA sued the Philadelphia Board of Elections on behalf of two registered voters whose timely mail ballots submitted in the September 17 special election for state representative were rejected because they failed to handwrite a date on the outer return envelope.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Luzerne County voters and an advocacy organization, In This Together NEPA, over the county’s removal of mail ballot drop boxes just weeks ahead of the 2024 general election.

On September 25, 2024, 10 organizations filed a suit in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking the court to stop enforcement of the commonwealth’s requirement that voters include a handwritten date on the return envelope of their mail ballot packets.

On September 18, 2024, the Republican National Committee filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking the court to use its "King's Bench" authority to stop counties from implementing "notice-and-cure" policies. Notice-and-cure refers to the practice of counties alerting mail voters that there are errors with their mail ballot return packets that could lead to their ballots being disqualified and directing the voters on how to correct their mistakes so that they can submit a ballot that will be counted. On September 20, 2024, the plaintiffs in Genser and Matis v. Butler County Board of Elections and Center for Coalfield Justice et al. v. Washington County Board of Elections filed a motion to intervene in the case. Represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania, ACLU Voting Rights Project, Public Interest Law Center, and the law firm Dechert LLP, the intervenors argue that the RNC's position would adversely impact their cases and, consequently, thousands of voters. On October 5, 20204, the court declined to hear the RNC's case.

On May 28, 2024, ACLU-PA filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the commonwealth’s requirement that voters who submit mail ballots include a handwritten date on the voter declaration on the outside of the return envelope.

On April 29, 2024, ACLU-PA, Public Interest Law Center, and the law firm Dechert LLP sued Butler County on behalf of two voters whose provisional ballots were rejected by the board of elections in the 2024 Pennsylvania primary election.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has filed an amicus brief on behalf of a number of criminal legal reform and voting rights advocacy organizations in a lawsuit brought by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner that challenges Act 40. Act 40 is a state law that allows the Pennsylvania Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor for any crime that occurs on Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). If enforced, Act 40 would disenfranchise the Philadelphia voters who overwhelmingly elected and re-elected DA Krasner in landslide elections in 2017 and 2021. Act 40 would usurp the authority that those voters entrusted in DA Krasner. The amicus brief alleges a violation of DA Krasner’s rights to equal protection under the Pennsylvania Constitution and a violation of the rights of Philadelphia voters who would effectively have their vote nullified by Act 40. The amicus brief asks the court to declare Act 40 unconstitutional.