The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that mail ballots that are improperly dated won't be counted in November, a move that could have major implications in the closely divided battleground state.
The decision reverses a lower court ruling from last month that found it was unconstitutional to reject mail ballots that had a missing or incorrect date.
The bureaucratic requirements of ballots in Pennsylvania have long been the subject of litigation, with opponents of the date requirements arguing that they unnecessarily disenfranchise eligible voters. A group of voting rights advocates went to court in May seeking to block the provision, which required election officials to reject ballots that were incorrectly dated, even if the ballot reached them by the statutory deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day.
The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party stepped in to support the date provision, arguing it was important to protect elections. Their appeal of the Commonwealth Court's ruling from two weeks ago was successful on Friday.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley praised the ruling as a "HUGE election integrity win" in a post on X.
"This makes mail voting in the Keystone State less susceptible to fraud," he said. "We will keep fighting and winning!"
Attorneys with the voting rights groups involved in the lawsuit, including the ACLU and the Public Interest Law Center, said because the state Supreme Court ruled the lower court lacked jurisdiction, more action on the case was possible.
"Today’s procedural ruling is a setback for Pennsylvania voters, but we will keep fighting for them. These eligible voters who got their ballots in on time should have their votes counted and voices heard," Steve Loney, an attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "The fundamental right to vote is among the most precious rights we enjoy as Pennsylvanians, and it should take more than a trivial paperwork error to take it away."
Pennsylvania has yet to start sending mail ballot to voters, as a handful of third-party challenges are still being litigated in the courts.
Even a small number of mail ballots getting thrown out due to incorrect or missing dates could have significant ramifications in Pennsylvania, a state President Joe Biden won over former President Donald Trump by less than 82,000 votes in 2020.
According to Votebeat, a nonpartisan outlet that focuses on election reporting, more than 4,400 mail ballots were rejected in Pennsylvania's most recent primary due to date issues.
Democrats have utilized mail voting more heavily than Republicans in recent elections in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
The state, with 19 electoral votes up for grabs, is once again a critical battleground in the presidential race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It is also hosting a contest between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick that could be crucial to determining which party controls the Senate.
