Court stops Pennsylvania counties from throwing out mail-in votes over incorrect envelope dates

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state court Friday halted enforcement of a requirement that voters include accurate, handwritten dates on envelopes used to submit mail-in ballots, a ruling likely to keep several thousand Pennsylvania votes from being thrown out in the November election.

In a decision handed down as the state is being hotly contested in the presidential contest, Commonwealth Court ruled 4-1 that disqualifying voters who failed to include the date violates the state constitution’s clause that addresses “free and equal” elections.

“The refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote” in the Pennsylvania Constitution, wrote Judge Ellen Ceisler in the majority opinion, siding with the left-leaning groups that sued three months ago.

Pennsylvania is widely seen as a critical battlefield state in the race between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, and the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests in the state were both very close.

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