Mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes must still be counted if they are received in time, a judge ruled Tuesday, concluding that rejecting such ballots violates federal civil rights law.
The decision has implications for the 2024 presidential election in a key battleground state where Democrats have been far more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.
In the latest lawsuit filed over a 2019 state voting law, U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter ruled that county boards of election may no longer reject mail ballots that lack accurate, handwritten dates on their return envelopes. Baxter said the date — which is required by state law — is irrelevant in helping elections officials decide whether the ballot was received in time or whether the voter is qualified to cast a ballot.
The GOP has repeatedly fought in court to get such ballots thrown out, part of a campaign to invalidate mail-in ballots and mail-in voting in Pennsylvania after then-President Donald Trump baselessly claimed in 2020 that mail balloting was rife with fraud.
The judge, a Trump appointee, sided with several Pennsylvania groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that refusing to count such ballots “because of a trivial paperwork error” disenfranchises voters and violates provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting.
The suit was filed by state chapters of the NAACP, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, the Black Political Empowerment Project and other groups.
“Throwing out valid votes because of a minor paperwork error is undemocratic and illegal,” Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a written statement Tuesday. “This ruling ensures that Pennsylvanians who vote by mail, including senior citizens and voters with disabilities, will not face disenfranchisement…
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