The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined to step in and immediately decide issues related to mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania with early voting already is underway with 29 days left before Election Day.
On Saturday night, the court rejected a request by voting right and left-leaning groups to stop counties from throwing out mail-in ballots that lack handwritten dates or have incorrect dates on the return envelope. The court, in advance of already hotly contested races, cited prior rulings pointing to the risk of confusing voters so close to the election.
“This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election,” the unsigned order said.
Chief Justice Debra Todd dissented, saying voters, election officials and courts needed clarity on the issue before Election Day.
Justice P. Kevin Brobson, said in a concurring opinion that the voter advocacy groups delayed for more than a year after an earlier high court ruling to bring their challenge, and it was “an all-too-common practice of litigants who postpone seeking judicial relief on election-related matters until the election is underway that creates uncertainty.”
Todd disagreeing with her colleagues on the high court’s stance said, “We ought to resolve this important constitutional question now, before ballots may be improperly rejected and voters disenfranchised.”
Some voters are apparently confused or do not understand the legal requirement to sign and date their mail-in ballots, leaving tens of thousands of ballots without accurate dates since Pennsylvania expanded mail-in voting in 2019. The issue of whether to count, not to count, notify or not notify voters who have filled out mail-in ballots, thinking they have voted is definitely seen as giant massive issue.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs said a number of courts have found a voter-written date is meaningless in determining whether the ballot arrived on time or whether the voter is eligible. Rejecting a ballot, the plaintiffs say, on that basis should be considered constitutional violation at the state level. “The parties won their case on the same claim in a statewide court earlier this year but it was thrown out by the state Supreme Court on a technicality before justices considered the merits,” an AP report says.
Statewide Democrats have sided with the plaintiffs; ack Political Empowerment Project, POWER Interfaith, Make the Road Pennsylvania, One PA Activists United, New PA Project Education Fund Pittsburgh United, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Common Cause Pennsylvania.
Republicans have repeatedly said the date requirement is a safeguard protecting elections and voters in numerous media accounts.
Mail-in voting for now is a partisan issue with just under 75 percent of those votes coming from Democrats. Both political parties have said the specter of mail-in voting being rife with fraud can be laid at the feet of former president Donald Trump. He continues to make unfounded claims that mail-in voting is “rigged.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has five Democratic justices and two Republican justices elected to it. The Court is more than likely to continue playing an integral role in the 2024 elections.
Mail-in ballots, for those that applied for one in Bucks County, started appearing in voter mailboxes over the last few days with some locals already receiving theirs.