Today, a Pennsylvania state court judge delivered an order defending election integrity. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court's order in Trump v. Boockvar held that the mail ballots of first-time voters who did not provide proof of identity by the statutory deadline could not be counted. The reasoning in the short order was important for the overall integrity of elections and inability of executive branch agencies to overturn election safeguards enacted by the legislature:
[The] Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Board of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline in Section 1308(h) of the Pennsylvania Election Code . . . for certain electors to verify proof of identification, based on Secretary Boockvar's interpretation and application of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar . . . .
RNLA Co-Chair Harmeet Dhillon tweeted a helpful thread explaining the decision, noting that the fate of the approximately 10,000 absentee ballots received after the statutory deadline but before the extended deadline approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is still before the U.S. Supreme Court:
I want to clear something up here regarding PA lawsuit win: This has to do with ballots where first-time voters didn't provide proof of identity within 6 days after the election, NOT the PA Supreme Court ruling allowing ballots to be counted if received up to 3 days after e-day/
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 12, 2020
3/ Some folks are interpreting this as a ruling on both issues, and it's almost certain the 10k+ ballots admittedly received after election day are likely greater in volume than this category, but we don't know yet. There are more hearings coming up next week in PA... stay tuned.
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 12, 2020
This was, of course, only one of the serious irregularities and rewriting of statutory requirements by the Secretary of State or the courts during the past couple weeks in Pennsylvania. Margot Cleveland detailed the disparate treatment of voters in Democratic and Republican counties through their implementation of an extra-statutory "cure" procedure.
This is why President Trump's lawsuit are so important, regardless of the outcome of the election. They are necessary to bring the facts of what has happened in the past few weeks to light so that state legislatures and election officials can take steps to protect the integrity of future elections.