On Friday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that all mail-in ballots must be properly dated to be counted in elections. The 4-3 ruling threw out the Commonwealth Court’s ruling from just a few weeks ago that election officials cannot discard mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates and to do so violated the Free and Equal Elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rarely exercises this “King’s Bench power”, which gives the Supreme Court the authority to supervise and administer the judiciary. The Supreme Court said the lower court “lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the matter”, according to a court filing.
Under Act 77, the 2019 law that introduced no-excuse mail voting, Pennsylvanians are required to sign and date the outer return envelopes of their ballots. The April 2024 primary election saw over 800,000 people request mail-in ballots, 75% of which were Democrats. Sixteen thousand of them were disqualified due to irregularities, with about half missing signatures or incorrect dates on outer envelopes.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania called the ruling a “huge” win for election integrity while voting rights advocates like the American Civil Liberties Union think it’s a setback for voters. Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes up for grabs in the 2024 presidential election, and this ruling could be crucial to determining not only the President, but which party controls the U.S. Senate.
On Monday, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt certified the 2024 ballot for the 2024 general election, so counties can now begin printing them for distribution to those who have or will request them. Most counties are hoping to start mailing out ballots by the first week of October. Registered Pennsylvania voters have until October 29 to request a mail ballot. Completed mail ballots must be turned in to the county elections office by 8 p.m. on November 5th.
