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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s highest court has directed three counties not to include undated or misdated mail ballots in their November election results.
Such ballots have been the subject of years of litigation in various courts, and became an issue again after Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties moved to count them for the Nov. 5 election.
These are the ballots where a voter has neglected to write the date on the return envelope or written something incorrect, like their birthday. There are roughly 1,500 or so ballots in play in the three counties, likely not enough to change the outcome of the U.S. Senate race that is spurring the litigation.
Still, the legal action highlights an unsettled area of policy that has long frustrated people in charge of running elections in Pennsylvania.
Attorneys for the counties had argued that officials there had constitutional concerns about rejecting the improperly dated ballots.
They pointed to Commonwealth Court, which has ruled multiple times this year that rejecting mail ballots solely for an improper date violates the state constitution’s free and equal elections clause.
On Monday, a 4-3 majority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court told the three counties not to include undated and misdated...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/q7XXsnSXT_u4mZLCn3chUorwDmUD_kWiB272D6emB18/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80N2Uy/OGY5MWUwZThkYTEw/NDVkZGM2ZGZkZDIw/ZjliOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}