The court held 4-3 the ballots “shall not be counted for purposes of the election held” on Nov. 5, instructing counties to comply with earlier court rulings. The Republican National Committee sued Thursday after several counties decided to count ballots with incorrect dates.
“Following our latest RNC lawsuit, today the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yet again that undated ballots CANNOT BE COUNTED,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley wrote in a statement on X. “No more excuses. Election officials in Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and other counties have absolutely no choice but to reject illegal ballots. We will hold them to it.”
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht wrote in a concurring statement that it is “critical to the rule of law that individual counties and municipalities and their elected and appointed officials, like any other parties, obey orders of this Court.” Justice Kevin Brobson likewise wrote that local election officials do not “have the authority to ignore Election Code provisions that they believe are unconstitutional.”
Bucks County commissioners voted Thursday to allow misdated ballots to be counted as the race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Senator-elect Dave McCormick headed towards a recount.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick, who is now leading Casey by over 17,000 votes, on Nov. 7.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court previously affirmed Nov. 1 that requiring mail ballots to have handwritten dates is constitutional.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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