On Wednesday, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling favoring an election integrity lawsuit that the Republican National Committee (RNC) spearheaded. Now, mail-in ballots without a date won't be included in Pennsylvania's vote tally, regardless of when they are submitted.
At the crux of the matter lies the interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which stipulates that voting rights cannot be infringed due to "an error or omission" deemed "not material." The three-judge panel overturned a prior decision that ruled in favor of including undated ballots.
"In the November 2020 and November 2022 elections, thousands of Pennsylvania mail-in voters did not comply with the date requirement. Some voters omitted the date altogether, others put shortened or obviously incorrect dates," the ruling reads. "As county boards took different approaches to enforcing the date requirement, litigation began, and the Materiality Provision took center stage. 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. Ritter v. Migliori, 143 S. Ct. 297 (2022)."
The validity of enforcing the date requirement thus remained uncertain as a matter of federal law. But the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania soon settled the issue for state law purposes. See Ball v. Chapman, 289 A.3d 1, 20-23 (Pa. 2023). It unanimously agreed the command in Pennsylvania’s Election Code that mail-in voters 'shall . . . date' 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,' Id. at 20-22. The Court also rejected the argument that a declaration with an incorrect date was “sufficient,” reasoning that “[i]mplicit in the Election Code’s textual command . . . is the understanding that ‘date’ refers to the day upon which an elector signs the declaration.”
The RNC celebrated the ruling and expects it will ultimately reach the Supreme Court.
"This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide," RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. "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. Republicans will continue to fight and win for election integrity in courts across the country ahead of the 2024 election.”
This is a particularly important ruling because, as PJ Media has previously covered, Pennsylvania Democrats have been trying hard to put their thumb on the scales to keep the state blue. So the battle for election integrity in the state is far from over. Last year, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) unilaterally mandated automatic voter registration, arguing that it would make elections more secure — even though thousands of non-citizens already appear on the state voter rolls.
Related: Here’s How the Democrats Will Steal Pennsylvania in 2024
