The Sconi

A recent Pennsylvania court ruling overturning a mail ballot law, and one in Wisconsin outlawing drop boxes, demonstrate why many voters lack confidence in the election system, the national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative said.

“Millions of American voters have lost confidence that our system of elections protects the right to vote, that their voice can be heard, and vote counted fairly and openly, and that it won’t be diluted by unsecure, unverifiable, and quite frankly illegal voting practices susceptible to fraud, abuse or mismanagement,” said Chairman Ken Cuccinelli, who is a former attorney general of Virginia.

Cuccinelli describes himself as "fighting on the front lines of the conservative movement" for more than 20 years.

Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court ruled Jan. 28 in McLinko v. Pennsylvania that a 2019 law, Act 77, permitting “no excuse” mail ballots, was unconstitutional. In Wisconsin, Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ruled Jan. 10 that nothing in state election law permits voters to place their ballots in drop boxes.

Election officials in both states encouraged the use of both drop boxes and mail ballots in the 2020 general election to provide a measure of safety during the pandemic. Ballot trafficking, where a third party collects mail ballots and places them in drop boxes, was also in heavy use.

The practices, Cuccinelli said, allowed for the “flooding of hundreds of thousands of potentially, unverifiable mail-in ballots in 2020.”

In Pennsylvania, Act 77 remains in place as Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, filed an appeal of the Commonwealth Court ruling to the state Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said it will hear oral arguments on the case in March.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, citing Judge Bohren's ruling, petitioned the state Supreme Court to disallow the use of drop boxes in the Feb. 15 primary, after an appeals court ruled that they could be used. The state Supreme Court later said it would hear the case, a development that leaves the appeals court ruling in place.

Former President Donald Trump, who carried Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the 2016 election, has falsely alleged that he lost both states in 2020 due to massive voter fraud.