A federal appeals court in Pennsylvania has ruled that mail-in ballots received without an accurate handwritten date on the outside of the envelope are invalid, a decision that is no longer valid this year in key battleground states. This will have a significant impact on the election.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, overturning a lower court’s November ruling.
Lower courts have ruled that mail-in ballots should be counted if they are received on time, even without a proper date. The court found that “minor administrative errors” disenfranchised voters and violated a key provision of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to block voting. Stated.
Former President Donald Trump has long railed against mail-in voting. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, left, Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images, right)
Key issues ahead of Pennsylvania’s Republican primary include election integrity, mail-in voting laws, and more
But in a federal appeals court opinion Wednesday, Judge Thomas Umbro wrote that the state Legislature passed a law and determined that mail-in voters must write a date on their envelope for their vote to count. Ta.
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has unanimously held that this voting rule is mandatory, so if it is not followed, the vote is invalid under Pennsylvania law,” Ambro wrote.
The materiality clause “applies only when the state determines who can vote,” Ambro wrote.
Under a state law passed in 2019, Pennsylvania voters “must fill out, date, and sign a printed declaration.” [the] Please fill out the envelope before returning your ballot.
Supporters of mail-in voting say it makes voting more convenient and makes it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to vote. But some Republicans have argued that the process raises serious questions about election integrity, and former President Donald Trump has slammed the system as “totally corrupt.” , have argued that this system was partly to blame for their 2020 election defeat.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats are much more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.
Chester County election workers process mail-in and absentee ballots during the 2020 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
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“This is a critical victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and across the country,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to have confidence in the security of their mail-in ballots, and this Third Circuit ruling eliminates illegal left-wing attempts to count undated or misdated mail-in ballots. I completely refuse it.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represented groups and voters who challenged the date mandate, said voters would lose as a result of the ruling.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley welcomed the ruling. (Robert Willett/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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“If this ruling stands, thousands of Pennsylvania voters could lose their votes due to meaningless paperwork errors,” said Mike Lee, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Stated.
“The ballots at issue in this case came from voters who met the deadline to submit their ballots. In passing the Civil Rights Act, Congress created unnecessary barriers for states to disenfranchise voters. We put guardrails in place to prevent it from being built. It’s unfortunate that the court didn’t recognize that principle.”
More than 7,600 mail-in ballots were discarded in 12 counties for the 2022 midterm elections because the outer envelopes were missing or had the wrong date, according to the ruling.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
