New Challenge to Pennsylvania Mail-Ballot Rules Hinges on State Constitutional Provision
The date that voters are required to write on their mail ballot envelope serves no real purpose and should be disregarded as a basis for accepting those ballots, lawyers argued Thursday in a pivotal case that could substantially change the rules for voting by mail in Pennsylvania. Republican lawyers, however, defended the law, saying the date could be useful in checking for vote fraud.
The state’s Commonwealth Court heard arguments in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center, on behalf of voting-rights groups, that seeks to end enforcement of the requirement in state law that voters write the date they complete their mail ballot on the return envelope.
Thousands of voters each year have their ballots rejected because they failed to write the date, or they write an improper date. More than 4,400 were rejected for this reason in Pennsylvania’s most recent primary. The issue has been litigated continually since no-excuse mail voting was introduced in the state in 2020.
While courts have gone back and forth on the requirement, this latest challenge differs because it focuses on a previously untested theory — under a state constitutional provision — that the plaintiffs feel is much stronger than previous arguments. The case could be the last legal avenue to challenge the dating requirement. But it could also backfire and imperil no-excuse mail voting altogether, because of the way the law is written.
https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/08/new-challenge-to-pennsylvania-mail-ballot-rules-hinges-on-state-constitutional-provision/
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