Election Day is Coming UP! Mail Your Ballot Back TODAY!
- Democratic Party of Clarion County
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Just a reminder that election day is coming up on November 4. If you are voting by mail, be sure to mail back your ballot as soon as possible. Mail in ballots must be RECEIVED by the elections office by November 4. (not postmarked by 11/4). It is important to allow time for them to travel by USPS.
Remember to VOTE YES to retain our judges. Here's why it's important:
Along with the ability to elect local officials for positions like Clarion Borough Council, this upcoming election also has three PA Supreme Court Judges up for retention on the ballot.
Your ballot will ask whether you want to vote “Yes” or “No” to retain the following three judges: Democratic Justices Kevin Dougherty, Christine Donohue and David Wecht.
As PA Supreme Court judges, Donohue, Dougherty, and Wecht have played a role in supporting our rights and freedoms. They have voted to protect our reproductive freedoms, supported our ability to vote by mail, and have helped keep our elections fair by voting against gerrymandered maps that would have taken the power of our votes away from individuals. This is especially critical, as this court will weigh in on the next round of congressional redistricting after the 2030 census.
What is on the ballot?
On 11/4/25, PA voters will decide whether to grant new 10-year terms to the three justices on our state’s Supreme Court in what’s known as a retention vote.
Democratic Justices Kevin Dougherty, Christine Donohue and David Wecht face no opponents, only a yes-or-no vote on whether to extend their terms.
We recommend voting YES to retain all three judges: Judges Dougherty, Donohue, and Wecht.
Why does this election matter?
If even two of the justices are voted out, liberals could lose their 5-2 majority on the state’s high court. Republicans would then have an opportunity in 2027 to flip the court’s balance of power ahead of the next White House race and any election litigation.
What rulings have these judges made in the past?
Made it easier to vote by mail
In the last two White House races, the PA high court ruled in favor of Democrats’ arguments related to mail-in deadlines, provisional ballots and signature matching.
Donohue has been the primary author on a number of high-profile decisions, including one in 2022 that upheld Pennsylvania’s no-excuse mail voting law, Act 77. A lower court had struck down the law as unconstitutionally enacted by statute rather than amendment.
Reproduction Access
These justices were at the heart of a 2024 case regarding reproductive rights.
Donohue overturned a previous ruling that upheld a ban on the use of Medicaid dollars to cover abortion. She wrote "that the Pennsylvania Constitution secures the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy, which includes a right to decide whether to have an abortion.”
What is at stake if we don’t retain these 3 liberal judges?
Gerrymandering
This court will weigh in on the next round of congressional redistricting after the 2030 census.
A republican majority court could make it easier for republicans to draw district lines in ways that would make it harder for democrats to get elected to the US house of representatives, as well as the state house and senate (we saw this happen recently in Texas).
Abortion and birth co
ntrol access
A republican-majority Supreme Court could make it easier for our state congress to pass laws that would remove our autonomy around reproductive health.
Education policies
Environmental regulations
LGBT Rights
Immigration Rights
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