Key Swing State Supreme Court Rules Mail-In Ballots With Flawed Dates Can Be Tossed

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling Friday that will allow mail-in ballots without accurate dates on their return envelopes to be thrown out.

In late August, a Pennsylvania state court halted the enforcement of requiring voters to include accurate, handwritten dates on submitted mail-in ballots, according to CBS News. However, the state’s Supreme Court, in a 4-3 vote, has now reinstated the requirement as two Democrats on the high court joined both Republicans to vacate the Commonwealth Court decision, according to the court documents.

Within the court filing, Justices Kevin Dougherty, Sallie Updyke Mundy, Kevin Brobson and Daniel McCaffery stated the decision was made after the Commonwealth Court failed to “name the county boards of elections of all 67 counties,” calling out Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt for not meeting the requirements “to invoke the Commonwealth Court’s original jurisdiction.”

With the reversal of the decision, over 10,000 ballots could potentially be tossed within the key swing state due to expected discrepancies on the envelopes regarding the date, according to The Associated Press. Justice David Wecht, within his dissent, stated, “A prompt and definitive ruling on the constitutional question presented in this appeal is of paramount public importance inasmuch as it will affect the counting of ballots in the upcoming general election.”

In November 2022, the state’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that mail-in or absentee ballots lacking a date on their return envelopes are invalid, prior to the midterm elections at the time.

However, earlier this year, a lawsuit pertaining to the issue was brought forward and argued that the mandate of writing a date on the envelope of an absentee or mail-in ballot was not enforceable and violated the Free and Equal Elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, according to Politics PA.

The decision from the high court comes prior to November’s presidential election, where the race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala is expected to be tight. Data according to RealClearPolling’s averages show the two political figures in a tie within the state.

Following the results of the 2020 election, the Trump campaign had filed a lawsuit arguing Republicans had been illegally disadvantaged in the state’s election due to some counties allegedly allowing “ballot curing,” which is a practice that prompts residents to fix errors on their mail-in ballots. However, the case was later dismissed by a judge and rejected by the Supreme Court in December 2020.