Pennsylvania cannot throw out improperly dated mail-in ballots, court rules
‘Today’s decision is a win for voters and democracy,’ said Mike Lee, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
In a win for voting rights, a Pennsylvania court ruled on Aug. 30 that state election workers cannot toss out mail-in ballots for which voters improperly date the return envelope.
A coalition of 10 voting rights groups filed a lawsuit in May against Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Republican, and the boards of elections of Philadelphia and Allegheny counties for enforcing a provision of state law that requires voters to put the correct date on the outer return envelope of a mail-in ballot in order for it to be counted. The groups said in their suit that this provision of the law has led the state to throw out more than 10,000 ballots cast since the 2022 election, even if the ballots were received by the correct date and had no other issues.
“The refusal to count timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of an inconsequential paperwork error violates the fundamental right to vote recognized in the Free and Equal Elections Clause,” the groups wrote in their petition.
The Commonwealth Court sided in a 4-1 ruling with the voting rights groups.
Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote in the majority opinion, “The refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote recognized in the free and equal elections clause” of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The Republican National Committee had intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of Schmidt in an effort to allow election officials to throw out improperly dated ballots. The RNC said it will appeal the Commonwealth Court’s ruling.
“Courts should not undermine election confidence and integrity by striking down commonsense election laws enacted by the people’s representatives,” Claire Zunk, an RNC spokesperson, told Spotlight PA.
Pennsylvania is a critical battleground state in the 2024 election.
Former President Donald Trump carried the state in 2016 by fewer than 70,000 votes, while President Joe Biden won it in 2020 by just over 80,000 votes.
Polling shows the 2024 election will likely be close, with Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by a little more than 1 point in the FiveThirtyEight polling average.
The voting rights groups that brought the suit hailed the court ruling.
“Today’s decision is a win for voters and democracy,” Mike Lee, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit, said in a statement. “No one should lose their vote over a simple human error that has no relevance to whether or not the ballot was received on time. This decision preserves the votes of thousands of voters who make this mistake in every election, without undemocratic, punitive enforcement by the counties.”
