Pennsylvania Voters Urged to Check Details as Court Nixes Undated Ballots

Pennsylvania voters are being urged to write dates on the envelopes of mail-in ballots after a court ruled that undated ballots may not be counted in the November 8 midterm elections.

The Pennsylvania state Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday to force county election boards to "segregate and preserve" the undated or wrongly dated ballots instead of counting them in next week's midterms, according to the Associated Press (AP). As the disputed ballots are being preserved, they could still potentially be added in later vote counts, likely pending a "curing" process and the outcome of any additional court challenges.

In the 2020 election, nearly twice as many Democrats voted by mail as Republicans, according to a report from MIT's Election Data and Science Lab. While it is unclear whether the partisan split will be the same in this year's election and the number of undated mail-in ballots is expected to be small, the legal effort to reject the ballots was launched by Republicans who could benefit from the ruling.

Daniel Mallinson, an assistant professor of public policy and administration at Penn State University in Harrisburg, told Newsweek that the decision was "an important ruling for the upcoming election," while noting that the issue had been "disputed in Pennsylvania for some time."

"My understanding is that there are not a lot of these ballots, so they probably won't effect major races like those Governor or U.S. Senate, but they can matter in more local races," said Mallinson. "So for smaller races that are close, the undated mail in ballots could make a difference."

Mallinson said that the issue reminded him of a dispute over "naked ballots" before the 2020 election, which involved voters returning mail-in ballots in the wrong envelope. He said that "multiple educational campaigns" were launched to instruct voters on how to return their ballots at the time, while the decision on Tuesday may have come too late to educate voters.

"This decision on dates comes just a week before the election," Mallinson said. "So it's late in the game to do that kind of voter outreach."

Although the election was only one week away, Democrats and advocacy groups did urge voters to remember to correctly date their ballot envelopes after the ruling was announced. Some suggested that the decision would "disenfranchise" voters.

"We're making sure Pennsylvania voters at the World Series know exactly where to go to get all the information they need to cast their ballot," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee tweeted while sharing a link to a voting guide and a photo of the guide being advertised outside Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

"We're disappointed," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania tweeted. "No one should be disenfranchised for an irrelevant technicality."

"We'll keep fighting to make sure every valid vote counts. In the meantime, here's how to be sure that your mail or absentee ballot will be counted," the ACLU of Pennsylvania added while sharing an earlier tweet instructing voters on how to properly date their envelopes.

"The reason why Repubs fought so hard in PA courts to throw out ballots where everything is perfectly correct, but the voter forgot to write the date, was done simply because they know more Ds vote by mail than Rs," tweeted commentator and former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski. "Date your ballots and check on them if you think your forgot."

Prominent GOP figures celebrated the court's decision on Tuesday as a win for "election integrity."

"The @GOP, @NRCC, & @PAGOP just secured a MASSIVE election integrity win in Pennsylvania," Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted. "The PA Supreme Court agrees with us that incorrectly or undated mail ballots can not be counted in next week's elections. Republicans went to court. Now Democrats have to follow the law."

"Today's Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling is a victory for the rule of law," tweeted retiring Pennsylvania GOP U.S. Senator Pat Toomey. "The law in Pennsylvania is clear: Mail-in ballot envelops must be dated. Counting undated ballots would be in violation of the law. Not a close call."

"A victory for election integrity!" tweeted Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor. "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled today that undated ballots must be segregated and not counted. #ElectionIntegrity"

Some conservatives celebrated the ruling while invoking false claims of a "rigged" 2020 presidential election.

"This is indeed a massive setback to the Marxist Dems who thought they had rigged another election," former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs tweeted. "The RNC has finally engaged!"