(The Center Square) – Ballots returned to county election offices with incorrect or missing dates still count as valid, according to a federal opinion issued Tuesday.
A three-panel judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said Pennsylvania’s mandate that mail-in votes with dating errors must be set aside violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
The unanimous decision found that leaning on dates to “back stop” failures with the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors, or SURE, “betrays a misunderstanding of Pennsylvania’s election laws.”
“While the Commonwealth has raised legitimate interests related to voting, we see only tangential links, at best, between these interests and the date requirement that Pennsylvania imposes on mail-in voters,” the panel wrote. “The date requirement does not play a role in election administration, nor does it contribute an added measure of solemnity beyond that created by a signature. And only in the exceedingly rare circumstance does it contribute to the prosecution of voter fraud.”
The ruling comes two years after registered Democratic voters in Erie County, Bette Eakin and Ines Massella, challenged the rule, directing counties to disregard roughly 25,000 ballots during the 2022 and 2024 general elections combined.
“This ruling is a decisive victory for voting rights and democratic participation in Pennsylvania,” said Uzoma Nkwonta, Eakin’s attorney at Elias Law Group, in a statement Tuesday. “The court recognized what we’ve long argued: that discarding otherwise valid ballots over trivial errors that have nothing to do with the voter’s eligibility is a violation of voters’ fundamental constitutional rights. We’re proud to have worked alongside the DSCC and DCCC in this critical fight to protect every Pennsylvanian’s right to have their vote counted.”
Both high-profile races and lower-level contests have dragged on for days while county election workers sift through mail-in ballots searching for those with dating or signature errors or missing secrecy envelopes. In some races, candidates have triumphed by just a few hundred votes.
More than 7 million ballots were cast in total during the 2024 general election, with all eyes on Pennsylvania and its highly coveted 19 electoral votes. Ultimately, President Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris by 120,000, nearly tripling the margin that led him to victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Pennsylvania’s other national race for U.S. Senate, however, came down to less than 17,000 votes. The razor-thin margin meant that incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Jr. waited 17 days to concede to Republican Dave McCormick as drama unfolded over defective mail-in ballots.
During a Nov. 14 meeting, Bucks County Commission Chairwoman Diane Ellis-Marseglia said she knew counting roughly 400 votes without dates defied a state Supreme Court ruling, but she didn’t care.
“I think we all know that precedent by a court does not matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want,” she said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention.”
And pay attention they did. Four days after the board’s action, the state Supreme Court reaffirmed that the ballots were defective.
The 4-3 order came after the state and national Republican Party filed for extraordinary relief over the issue, which also unfolded in Centre, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.
It’s just one of several lawsuits that confront the issue. Although lower state courts often side with the dating requirements, higher federal courts have been more critical.
On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro stood with the ruling from the 3rd Circuit.
“Throwing out a qualified voter’s ballot just because they forgot to write a date is disenfranchisement and unconstitutional,” he said. “My team argued in court to ensure meaningless errors shouldn’t cost you your right to vote in Pennsylvania – and today, a federal court ruled in our favor. I will always protect your right to vote and keep our elections free, safe, and secure.”
Overall, the number of mail-in ballots rejected for errors decreased by 57% in the general election, according to Department of State.
Of the roughly 1.9 million votes received on Nov. 5, 1% were tossed. In the April primary, 2.4% of ballots were rejected. The most common reasons were votes received after the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day (33%), incorrect or missing dates (23%), no signature (17%) or missing secrecy envelope (15%).
State Secretary Al Schmidt said improvements made between the two elections, including a year-long education initiative and early printing, “helped to significantly reduce the number of voters who were disenfranchised because of a mistake made when completing their mail ballot materials.”
