Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules incorrectly dated or undated ballots must be set aside

[867-5309.]

Source: CNN

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered that any general election ballots that are mailed in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes must be set aside and not counted by election boards.

“We hereby direct that the Pennsylvania county boards of elections segregate and preserve any ballots contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes,” the court said in a Tuesday order in response to a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee, the Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania requires voters to sign and date the outer envelope when mailing in a ballot.

In the 3-3 deadlocked order – a spot on the bench remains vacant after the chief justice died – the court acknowledged it was “evenly divided” on whether failing to count the undated or incorrectly dated ballots qualifies as a violation of federal election law. Three justices said they would find a violation of federal law, while three justices said they would find no violation...

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/politics/pennsylvania-supreme-court-undated-mail-ballots

[walkingman]

1. Looking for something that is not a problem.

[jimfields33]

2. sure would like to hear from the Democratic judge who voted for this.

I just want to hear the justification. This never should’ve passed, if that judge said no.

[Marthe48]

3. Maybe somebody threatened their kneecaps

n/t

[jimfields33]

14. Anything is possible

[Lonestarblue]

4. Just one more way Republicans use to prevent votes from being counted.

Since many mail ballots are deliberately confusing about where to sign and date, there are two simple solutions to this issue. Have elections clerks date stamp the ballots upon receipt—thus there’s an official record that a ballot was received on time. Print ballots with a second color, like bright yellow, for the areas the voter must sign and date. Why has this not been done?

Refusing votes for minor clerical errors is ridiculous!

[gab13by13]

5. Made sure wife's and my envelop were signed

rat fuckers have to rat fuck. I look for Pa. Magat legislators to abolish no excuse mail ballots next year.

It would also make sense for Pa. to count mail in ballots early, but no, my ballot cannot be counted until election day, last. Pa. won't have final results in for days, this is why the Magats have told us they are going to accuse Philadelphia of fraud.

[onecaliberal]

6. If the ballot is received by election day, what is the problem?

[CrispyQ]

8. Exactly.

Looking for a way to throw out votes. What the hell was the dem judge thinking?

Where is the democrats national ad campaign asking "Is it fair that it's easier to vote in Colorado than in West Virginia?" Then I'd roll all the ways CO makes it easy to vote, like same day registration.

I chose WV because it's Manchin's state.

[William Seger]

9. Exactly; it's a stupid decision supporting a stupid law

... so stupid that the actual intent is pretty clear: vote suppression, under the belief that it helps Republicans.

[cstanleytech]

23. Don't you mean post dated?

[PatSeg]

30. Yes

The only date that should be of any significance is the USPS postmark. Why on earth would a handwritten date on an envelope make any difference? Assuming it is republicans behind this, they need to be careful that they aren't disqualifying their own voters. Such oversights are hardly exclusive to one party.

[FakeNoose]

39. Exactly right

If I write a date on the envelope and the post office doesn't postmark it until the next day, does that mean MY handwritten date is incorrect? I can't believe they're making such a big deal out of this. The only date that matters is when the post office receives it and postmarks the mail. That's the valid date, everything else is BS.

[Walleye]

7. So the idea of actually determining the will of the people it's just in the shitter now

I’m not sure what they think elections are for but self governance doesn’t seem to be it. Some people making lots of money I guess their objective

[PatSeg]

31. Some have made it quite clear

that they don't believe in democracy, well except for when things go their way.

[RobinA]

33. It's Been In The Shitter

since 12/12/2000, the date a Supreme Court majority told a state they didn't have to finish counting votes in a Presidential election.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. So, a week before the election they decide this?

When tons of them have, I'm sure, been sent in already?

Real good job, guys.

[dsc]

11. How would they know it was correctly dated?

I fill out ballot today, and date it today, put it in mail tomorrow. Is that date deemed correct or incorrect?

[KPN]

24. That was my reaction too. Incomplete or no date are the only

"wrongs" I can think of.

This is all so stupid and infuriating. Why do so many people hate and feel the need to dominate with aggressive tactics? My short answer: insecurity, insufficient self-esteem. So many damaged minds.

[NullTuples]

27. Republicans: "The ballot instructions fine print says the envelope date must be ISO 8601 compliant"

An example of ISO 8601 would be, "2022-11-02".

It's the most rational date format; that's how you can tell my comment about Republicans was sarcasm.

[PatSeg]

32. Okay, you almost got me!

[NullTuples]

41. None of that, "Nov 8th, 2022" or, "11/8/2022" - try it and you are disqualified!

(I'm being completely facetious, although ISO 8601 really is the most rational, unambiguous date format, which is exactly why they would not insist on it)

[PatSeg]

44. Kind of reminds me of some of the absurd

requirements concerning voter registration cards in the 2004 presidential election - they had to be printed on 80-pound stock paper or they'd be ignored. I can't believe the crap that man got away with. I'm sure he'd would have required the date be written in ISO 8601 format on absentee ballots if he'd thought of it, but back then I think more republicans voted absentee than Democrats. I still believe Kerry won Ohio. Even Bush looked surprised when he won.

I use ISO 8601 on my computer files, but I'd never think to us it on a legal document.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

34. Are you sure you didn't date it "11/2/2021"? Are you? Sure?

Better double-check.

It's easy to make an absent-minded error. I just hope there are more absent-minded Republicans than Democratic ones.

[maxsolomon]

35. FRAUD!

INVALIDATE!

[Prairie_Seagull]

12. This should be appealed in short order.

[meow2u3]

13. I signed my ballot the day I received it

I signed my ballot on 10/5; however, the drop boxes didn't open until 10/10 and now I'm afraid my vote won't count. How do I correct this before it's too late?

[pandr32]

16. I hope that won't matter.

The date is for when you sign as far as I know. The date shouldn't be for when they put a drop box nearby. The date relates to your signature so I am puzzled about "incorrectly dated" ballots. Perhaps the odd person accidentally puts the wrong year in?

[KPN]

26. I would hope you are right about that, but there's certainly no guarantee with these

rat-f'ers. Incorrectly could be whatever they want to define it as.

[pandr32]

45. Seems like their plan.

[markbark]

15. I would say....

Just go by the postmark but then I remember that that leave open to possibility of Louis DeJoy rat f*ckery

[ColinC]

17. If it's a tie doesn't the lower ruling go into effect?

[867-5309.]

20. That's what I wondered n/t

[jmowreader]

18. Did they also rule that the voters needed to be called...

…to come in and do a replacement ballot?

[ColinC]

22. That would be a fair ruling in my mind...

There is time, after all.

[berniesandersmittens]

28. +1 nt

[Polybius]

19. Won't this hurt them more than us?

I would imagine the average intelligence of the Republican voter is a lot less than Democratic voters, meaning they are more likely to make mistakes.

[SeattleVet]

40. It might...

from reading some of the wingnut sites, it appears that some of them have been putting stuff like "July 4, 1776" on their envelopes when they send in their ballots.

One actually wrote something along the lines of, "The instructions said that there has to be a date...but it doesn't say it has to be today's date!"

Go ahead, MAGATs! Screw yourselves over, then complain that your vote didn't count.

[Native]

21. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, it is unclear what constitutes an incorrectly dated ballot.

But in the latest litigation, Republicans asked not only for the state of play to return to what it had been — they also pushed for ballots with the wrong dates to be rejected.

The court agreed with that request. That adds a new category of ballots that counties now have to reject, delivering a win for Republicans. But it was unclear Tuesday from the order alone what constitutes an “incorrectly dated” ballot. For example, would a ballot dated Election Day, but returned days beforehand, be considered wrongly dated?

Further in the article they mention birthdates as an example of incorrect dates provided in the past.

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-supreme-court-undated-mail-ballots-20221101.html

[NullTuples]

25. When a party has to cheat to get every last vote (or opposing votes blocked)...

[Orrex]

29. The first five words of the subject line say it all

[maxsolomon]

36. Technicalities turned in to Fraud Claims.

Mountains out of molehills.

[C Moon]

37. Makes me wonder what the Louis DeJoy is planning. nt

Of course, there's only a week to go at this point.

[elleng]

38. 'violation of federal election law?'

Well let's find out, as those hunkering down in Penn's Woods can't figure it out.

[live love laugh]

42. "3-3" ?!! How does a tie become law?

[Novara]

43. We've got to federalize as much as we can regarding voting.

I know, I know: "state's rights."

Well, leaving so much up to the states means ratfucking the vote, which in many cases ends up being violations of federal laws. Somehow Congress has to claw back as much federal control over everything regarding voting as they possibly can. This shit is getting ridiculous.