The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties are not required to count mail-in ballots that have incorrect or missing dates on the outer envelope.
The decision, reached in a 4-3 vote, overruled a lower court’s ruling that such ballots must be counted despite the errors. The court determined that the lower court lacked jurisdiction, as the case did not involve all 67 counties in the state, only the two largest ones.
The court’s order stated, “The Commonwealth Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the matter given the failure to name the county boards of elections of all 67 counties.”
This ruling effectively means that in the upcoming presidential election, any misdated or undated mail-in ballots will not be counted unless the jurisdiction issue is addressed by the plaintiffs, who include various civic groups such as the Black Political Empowerment Project and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State expressed disappointment in the ruling, noting that it leaves unresolved the question of whether the date requirement violates the state constitution, an issue previously raised by the Commonwealth Court.
Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, saw 16,000 mail-in ballots disqualified during the April presidential primary due to errors like missing signatures and incorrect or missing dates. As a response, officials suggested printing ballots with the year already on the outer envelope, so voters would only need to add the month and day they cast their vote.
