Opinion | Why Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court Election Matters

Pennsylvania next week will elect a new Justice to its state Supreme Court, and the race is worth watching well beyond Harrisburg. The winning jurist could be the tiebreaker in litigation over the state’s 2024 voting rules. The result could also show whether the end of Roe v. Wade is still powering Democrats to the polls.

Supreme Court elections in Pennsylvania are partisan affairs, and the Republican candidate is Carolyn Carluccio, President Judge of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. She promises to “apply the law as it is written.” She has mentioned concerns that the state Supreme Court’s rulings on mail ballots in recent years have been “conflicting, and sometimes unclear,” while also saying that “our election laws must be applied consistently across all counties.”