Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court Rules Against Counting Mail-In Ballots With Incorrect Dates

The doors to the Supreme Court in the early morning on October 20, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that temporarily dated mail-in ballots won’t be counted in the upcoming November election, a potentially huge ruling in a deadlocked swing-state.

The decision follows after a lower court ruling ruled it unconstitutional to reject mail-in ballots with a missing or incorrect date.

Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Whatley, celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling online, calling it a “HUGE election integrity win,” in an X (Twitter) post.

“This makes mail voting in the Keystone State less susceptible to fraud,” he stated. “We will keep fighting and winning!”

Democrat skeptics of the date requirements argue that they “disenfranchise” eligible voters, stating that dates on mail ballot envelopes, “[have] no bearing on a voter’s qualifications and serves no purpose other than to erect barriers to qualified voters exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote.”

Mail voting requirements have a lengthy history of litigation in Pennsylvania, dating back to the midterms in 2022, when Democrats filed a lawsuit in regards to the issue. They demanded that undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots still be counted.

Additionally, more recently, a group of voting rights advocates took to court in May, attempting to instate rulings against the blocking of incorrectly formatted ballots. It was successful initially within the lower court’s ruling, however, it ended up being overturned following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday.

The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party supported the repeal efforts, expressing that they were working to protect election integrity.

“Today’s procedural ruling is a setback for Pennsylvania voters, but we will keep fighting for them. These eligible voters who got their ballots in on time should have their votes counted and voices heard,” stated Steve Loney, an attorney for the civil rights groups. “The fundamental right to vote is among the most precious rights we enjoy as Pennsylvanians, and it should take more than a trivial paperwork error to take it away.”

The key battleground state was decided by less than 82,000 votes in the 2020 election, giving President Joe Biden the win over incumbent President Donald Trump. 

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