Officials Can’t Reject Mail-In Ballots With Incorrect Dates: Pennsylvania Court

Election officials cannot reject mail-in ballots with incorrect or no dates, as long as the ballots were submitted before the filing deadline, a Pennsylvania court has ruled. A panel of the Commonwealth Court, a state appeals court, ruled on Aug. 30 that the requirement in the law for mail-in ballot envelopes to have dates written on them violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. “Simply put, the refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely received mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote recognized in and guaranteed by the free and equal elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution,” Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote for the 4–1 majority....