Pa. Judge: Undated Mail-in Ballots Must Be Counted

A Pennsylvania judge ruled that undated mail-in ballots that arrive on time should be counted, Politics PA reported.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter could prove to critical as to who wins the key battleground state in next year’s presidential election, as it would permit tens of thousands of mail ballots in the state to be counted that would otherwise be rejected.

Republicans have been skeptical of mail-in ballots, primarily used by Democrat voters. The debate over the practice became the center of GOP claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Baxter’s decision is expected to be appealed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before reaching the Supreme Court.

Baxter ruled that “the court has concluded that the commonwealth’s mandatory application of its Date Requirement violates the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act. Since the court is confident that the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment should be granted on that basis, there is no need to reach their constitutional claim (and) the plaintiffs’ equal protection claim will be dismissed.”

Although the handwritten dates are mandated by state law, voters have shown confusion by putting dates such as their birthday on the line on the outer envelope, in addition to those who forget to include the date, according to Politics PA.

The plaintiffs in the case include the Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP and the Democratic Party’s campaign committees for U.S. House and Senate candidates, the Washington Examiner reported.

These organization have argued that not counting undated ballots would violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids denying the right to vote “because of an error or omission” in any “application, registration, or other act requisite to voting if such error or omission is not material in determining” qualification to vote.