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Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Revisit Mail-In Ballot Dating Requirements

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will reconsider whether voters are mandated to write the correct date on return envelopes when submitting mail-in ballots.

This requirement has led to over six legal challenges in the past four years, with several cases reaching the state Supreme Court. The justices will evaluate if this dating rule for absentee and mail ballot envelopes contravenes the state constitutional stipulations that elections must be free and equal.

Justice Christine Donohue, one of the Democratic justices on the court, remarked that the basis of the constitutional challenge lies in established findings from previous litigation indicating that the dating requirement does not serve a significant purpose within the election framework. “The dating requirements advance no ‘weighty interest’ and serve no purpose in the election process,” she stated.

Donohue was joined in her opinion by another Democratic justice, who expressed concern that the court’s decision to revisit the case should have explored the enforcement of the dating mandates before delving into their constitutionality.

This legal matter stems from a dispute involving 69 mail-in ballots in two special elections for the state House, with a judge in Philadelphia ruling that these ballots should be counted despite the absence of a handwritten date on their return envelopes.

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the lower court’s ruling in a narrow 3-2 decision in late October, but the state Supreme Court quickly intervened, placing a stay on this decision and clarifying that it would not be enforced for the upcoming presidential election on November 5.

Advocates for voting rights, primarily from the Democratic side, have long contested the necessity of the dating provision, arguing it leads to the rejection of ballots over a trivial clerical detail. Conversely, Republican officials maintain that the requirement is a critical security measure, despite the fact that counties do not rely on the date to ascertain if a ballot was submitted within the statutory timeframe.

Since the 2019 legislation permitting mail-in voting for all registered individuals, Pennsylvania has witnessed ongoing disputes surrounding mail-in ballots. Numerous lower courts have declared the practice of discarding ballots for failing to include the correct handwritten date as unconstitutional. However, these rulings have been suspended by higher courts, including the state Supreme Court.

In their Friday order, the justices indicated they would also assess whether declaring the dating requirement unconstitutional could lead to the invalidation of the entire mail-in voting law enacted in 2019.

Source
abcnews.go.com