The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned a lower court’s decision regarding the necessity of correct dates on mail-in ballots. The ruling, issued Friday, mandated that mail ballots must include the correct handwritten dates to be considered valid.
Last month, a lower court ruled against discarding mail-in ballots for incorrect handwritten dates on their envelopes. However, the state’s highest court nullified this decision after an appeal from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Pennsylvania GOP. Conservative attorney Mike Davis called the ruling a “Major win for election integrity in Pennsylvania” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The state Supreme Court’s ruling emphasized the procedural error in the original case.
“The Commonwealth Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the matter given the failure to name the county boards of elections of all 67 counties,” the court stated in its order on Friday.
A coalition of Democrat Party-aligned voting rights groups, represented by the ACLU and the Public Interest Law Center, presented the legal challenge. They argued that requiring a correct date on mail-in ballots imposes an unconstitutional restriction according to state law.
Meanwhile, the high court’s decision did not address the constitutional arguments put forward by the Democrat-aligned voting rights coalition. This leaves the broader question of whether date requirements infringe on state constitutional rights unresolved and will likely prompt additional legal challenges to the law.
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Major win for election integrity in Pennsylvania
The 5-2 Democrat Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, vacates liberal court and restores Pennsylvania statute requiring voters to date their mail ballots.
Democrats know following the law makes it harder to cheat. pic.twitter.com/CafPD0rdHD
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) September 13, 2024