Pennsylvania appeals court rules (again) that undated vote-by-mail ballots must be counted
Source: Pennsylvania Capital-Star
October 30, 2024 4:29 pm
Less than a week before the presidential election, a Pennsylvania court has again ruled that mail-in ballots returned with missing or incorrect dates must be counted.
The decision Wednesday stems from a lawsuit by two Philadelphia voters whose mail ballots in a Sept. 17 special election for a pair of state House seats were disqualified even though they were returned on time. They were among 69 ballots the Philadelphia Board of Elections refused to count because voters did not follow the instructions to write the date on the outside envelopes of their ballots before returning them.
A Philadelphia judge ruled in favor of the voters who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center. The Philadelphia Board of Elections appealed and was joined by the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. In a 3-2 decision, a Commonwealth Court panel ruled that the requirement to date the envelopes is unconstitutional because it denies the right to vote because of minor and inconsequential errors and serves no compelling governmental purpose.
Pennsylvania voters cannot be disenfranchised for trivial reasons, Stephen Loney, senior supervising attorney of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said. The dates written on return envelopes are completely meaningless, and everyone agrees that these ballots are from eligible voters and were timely received. Disqualifying voters for minor errors is a violation of the state constitution, which errs on the side of the voter.
Read more: https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/pennsylvania-appeals-court-rules-again-that-undated-vote-by-mail-ballots-must-be-counted/
JohnSJ
(96,024 posts)BumRushDaShow
(141,020 posts)and it'll be whether the PA Supreme Court weighs in or what. I don't know if the SCOTUS would jump in since it is dealing with state Constitutional issues (where their insertion of themselves today in VA had to do with federal law vs state law).
JohnSJ
(96,024 posts)slightlv
(4,226 posts)I remember reading something about it earlier in the day, just can't remember the particulars now...
BumRushDaShow
(141,020 posts)so unless someone tries to file to the SCOTUS, I don't see them weighing in and if they did, they might decline it.
I think the RNC just went to the SCOTUS with the provisional ballots case here after losing in the lower federal courts (where a county refused to allow provisional ballots to be cast when they found there were errors with the mail ballots), and the SCOTUS hasn't responded yet.