The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that mail-in ballots that don't have the correct date on the envelope won't be counted in the election, a decision that could be crucial in this year's presidential election, with 19 electoral votes at stake.
The state's high court ruled that a lower court that had found the order unenforceable for procedural reasons should not have taken up the case because it did not involve election boards in all 67 counties. The left-leaning groups that filed the lawsuit sued only two counties, Philadelphia and Allegheny.
In court filings, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said the lower commonwealth court “lacks jurisdiction to review the matter.”
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An election worker flattens ballots during the 2024 Pennsylvania primary election at an election warehouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 2024. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that mail-in ballots that don't have the correct date on the envelope can't be counted in the election, a ruling that could be crucial in this year's presidential election. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A Commonwealth Court two weeks ago halted enforcement of the requirement to hand-date the outer envelope. Friday's ruling means that mail-in ballots must be dated correctly to be considered valid.
The ruling was hailed by Republicans as a victory for voter integrity in the hotly contested state, but voting rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union said they would consider pursuing further legal options and called the decision a “setback for Pennsylvania voters.”
President Joe Biden won the state by about 80,000 votes in 2020, and former President Trump and Vice President Harris have campaigned heavily in the Keystone State.
More than 800,000 people requested mail-in ballots in the April primary, but officials rejected nearly 16,000 of them for fraud. Nearly half were invalidated for problems such as missing signatures or incorrect dates on the outer envelope, according to The New York Times. About 75% of the requested mail-in ballots were from Democrats.
About 2.5 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail in the 2020 election, according to a lawsuit filed by Republicans after the election seeking to have universal mail-in voting declared unconstitutional.
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Former President Trump and Vice President Harris have been campaigning heavily in the Keystone State. (AUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images, Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley called Friday's ruling a “huge” victory for election integrity.
“Following legal action from the Republican National Committee and @PAGOP [Republican Party of Pennsylvania]”The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected Democrats' attempt to count undated ballots,” Whatley wrote. “This makes mail-in voting in the Keystone State less susceptible to fraud. We will keep fighting, and we will keep winning!”
Steve Roney, senior supervising attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said the ruling is a setback for Pennsylvania voters.
“Voters who submit their ballots on time should have their vote counted and their voice heard,” Loney said. “The fundamental right to vote is one of the most precious rights Pennsylvanians enjoy, and it will take more than a minor paperwork error to take that away.”
The justices ruled 4-3, with the court's two Democrats joining the two Republicans to vacate the Commonwealth Court's decision.
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Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley called Friday's ruling a “huge” victory for election integrity. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Three other Democratic justices dissented, saying the Supreme Court should have heard the dispute.
“A swift and clear decision on the constitutional questions raised in this appeal is of critical public importance because they will affect vote tallying in the upcoming general election,” wrote Judge David Wecht, who and two other dissenters were scheduled to rule on the case based on written arguments.
Before the 2020 election, Republicans tried to prevent mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day from being counted, but the Supreme Court ultimately upheld a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that allowed ballots that arrived within three days of Election Day to be counted, even if they did not have a legible postmark.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
