Resource: NAACP Penn. State Conference v. Boockvar

By: Healthy Elections Project

September 16, 2020

Healthy Elections Project

Plaintiff NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference sued Pennsylvania's Secretary of State and Director of the Bureau of Election Services and Notaries ("State Defendants"). It alleges that Pennsylvania's election laws and practices during the pandemic severely burden the right to vote and disproportionately burden African-American and Latino voters in violation of Article I, sec. 5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. It further alleges Pennsylvania's election laws and practices, including reducing polling places and restricting access to mail-in and early voting disproportionately burdensome but not other voters in violation of Article I, sections 1 and 26 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. It seeks injunctive relief that defendants be required to maintain a sufficient number of polling places, give adequate notice to voters of any change in polling places through mail, permit early voting for the General Election, increase access to vote by mail, and use hand-marked paper ballots for the General Election in all polling places while retaining at least one accessible voting machine per polling place for those who request one and as required by federal law.

https://healthyelections-case-tracker.stanford.edu/detail?id=119