The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that mail-in ballots that don't have an accurate date on the return envelope can be thrown out.
In late August, a Pennsylvania court halted enforcement of a provision requiring voters to write the exact handwritten date on their mail-in ballots. According to The state Supreme Court reinstated the requirement in a 4-3 vote, with the court's two Democrats joining two Republicans to strike down the state court's ruling, according to CBS News. According to In court documents.
In court papers, Judges Kevin Dougherty, Sally Updike Mundy, Kevin Brobson and Daniel McCaffrey said the decision came after the Commonwealth Court “failed to name the county boards of elections in all 67 counties” and accused Commonwealth Chief Justice Al Schmidt of failing to meet the requirements to “exercise the Commonwealth Court's original jurisdiction.” (Related article: First states send out ballots weeks before Election Day, mail-in voting begins)
A woman places a ballot into an official ballot box at a satellite polling station outside Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 27, 2020. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
If the ruling is overturned, more than 10,000 ballots in key battleground states could be discarded due to expected discrepancies over envelope dates. According to Judge David Wecht told the Associated Press: Dissenting Opinion“A swift and clear decision on the constitutional questions raised in this appeal is crucial to the public because it will affect vote tallying in the upcoming general election,” the court said.
In November 2022, the state's Supreme Court unanimously ruled ahead of then-midterm elections that mail-in and absentee ballots that do not have a date on the return envelope are invalid.
But earlier this year, Litigation Lawsuits have been filed on this issue, arguing that the requirement to write dates on absentee and mail-in ballot envelopes is unenforceable and violates the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution. According to To Political PA.
The high court's ruling came ahead of November's presidential election, which is expected to be a close race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala. RealClearPolling Looking at the averages, the two politicians have the same approval rating in the state.
Following the 2020 election results, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit alleging that Republicans were unfairly disadvantaged in state elections by allegedly allowing some counties to allow “vote corrections,” a practice encouraging residents to correct errors in their mail-in ballots. However, the lawsuit was later dismissed by a judge and tossed by the Supreme Court in December 2020.
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