Republicans scored a legal victory this week after the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail-in ballots without dates or with unqualified dates cannot be counted in Pennsylvania elections.
In the 2-1 ruling, the court acknowledged that thousands of Pennsylvania mail-in voters did not comply with the date requirement in the November 2020 and November 2022 elections. Some voters excluded the date altogether. Others used shortened or obviously incorrect dates.
“As county boards took different approaches to enforcing the date requirement, litigation began, and the Materiality Provision took center stage,” the ruling stated Wednesday. “A panel of this Court ruled this federal law does apply outside the voter registration context and was violated by the date requirement now (again) before us. But that decision has since been vacated as moot by the Supreme Court.”
The court “unanimously agreed” that the command in Pennsylvania’s Election Code states that mail-in voters “shall date” their ballots and the declaration was “unambiguous and mandatory” as a matter of statutory interpretation.
“So omitting the date, or incorrectly dating the return envelope, ‘render[s] a ballot invalid’ under Pennsylvania law,” the court said.
The court rejected the argument that a declaration with an incorrect date was sufficient. “Implicit in the Election Code’s textual command is the understanding that ‘date’ refers to the day upon which an elector signs the declaration,” it said.
Under Pennsylvania law, the court said, noncompliant ballots are invalid.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley lauded the ruling, which his committee helped lead.
“This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide. Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of their mail ballots, and this 3rd Circuit ruling roundly rejects unlawful left-wing attempts to count undated or incorrectly dated mail ballots,” he said.
The RNC has touted 81 cases of election integrity litigation this cycle across the country in response to Democrats’ court challenges related to the upcoming election that the Republicans say “weaponizes the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act [of 1964].”
According to the law’s provision: “No person under color of law shall … deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.”
Republicans say their court win in Pennsylvania “represents a victory for mail ballot safeguards in a crucial swing state.”
Democrats celebrated an electoral-related win in Montana. The state’s highest court on Wednesday struck down four election reform laws that the Republican-led Legislature enacted in 2021.
That state court overturned laws that eliminated same-day voter registration in most circumstances, ended student ID cards as an acceptable form of voter ID, attempted to prevent paid third-party ballot-collection initiatives, and made it illegal to vote absentee for those who would turn 18 by Election Day.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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