Mail-in ballot error date case filed with state Supreme Court

Ten voter education organizations on Wednesday filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court seeking to allow mail-in ballots with errant dates on return envelopes to be counted.

It is an expected move after Pennsylvania’s highest court on Sept. 13 said it would not take an appeal from a Commonwealth Court decision on the same issue.

The organizations filed suit in May against the Secretary of State and Allegheny and Philadelphia counties, alleging that their failure to count mail-in ballots with date errors was a violation of the Pennsylvania constitution.

Their opposition, including the national Republican Party, argued that the ballots should be rejected because Pennsylvania’s legislature requires the inclusion of an accurate date.

The intermediate appellate court issued an opinion on Aug. 30 siding with the voting rights groups.

The court ruled that the dates on the outer envelopes are irrelevant and serve no “compelling government interest” that could justify disenfranchising voters.

The original lawsuit said that 10,000 people were impacted by the decision in the 2022 election.

However, the Republicans filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court, which said in a 4-3 decision, that the Commonwealth Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case because all 67 counties in Pennsylvania were not named as defendants.

The Supreme Court did not, however, rule on the merits of the case.

The matter, like all elections issues in the courts, will be handled on an expedited basis.

The petitioners asked the court to use its authority to take the case and bypass the lower courts.

It names as defendants Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and all 67 county boards of election.