Supreme Court Rejects Dispute Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots
The Supreme Court has declined to review a challenge by civil and voting rights organizations seeking to overturn Pennsylvania's requirement that mail-in ballots include a handwritten date on the outer envelope.
The groups argued that this mandate is unnecessary and has led to the disqualification of otherwise valid ballots. The justices declined to hear the case, letting stand a lower court ruling that upheld the requirement, rejecting the claim that it violated federal law, which prohibits discarding ballots for minor errors that don't affect a voter’s eligibility, as reported by Reuters.
In 2024, the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that while the date requirement “serves little apparent purpose”—since it’s not used to verify if a ballot was received on time—it remains lawful. The court reasoned that the 1964 Civil Rights Act applies to voter registration rules determining eligibility to vote, but not to how a ballot must be submitted for it to be counted.
Pennsylvania, a key swing state in presidential elections, played a crucial role once again in 2024. Then-President Donald Trump carried the state, defeating Democratic rival and now-former Vice President Kamala Harris, in a reversal of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
This rule affects mail-in voters in Pennsylvania, requiring them to place their completed ballot in a secrecy envelope, then into an outer return envelope. On the return envelope, voters must sign and date a declaration affirming their eligibility to vote.
The plaintiffs, including the Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued state and county election officials in 2022 under the materiality provision of the Civil Rights Act. This provision prohibits denying a person's vote due to an error or omission on any paperwork related to voting if such error is not material to determining the individual’s eligibility.
A federal judge initially ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that the date requirement did not matter in determining voter qualifications or ballot timeliness. However, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision, leading the plaintiffs to appeal to the Supreme Court.
In a filing, the plaintiffs told the Supreme Court that the “total lack of relevance” of the date on the outer ballot envelope is undisputed, and with mail-in voting becoming more prevalent, Pennsylvania's rule has led to “the needless disenfranchisement of thousands of voters each election, especially seniors of all political stripes.”
Attorneys representing the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party, who intervened to defend the envelope date requirement, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal. They argued that the plaintiffs were challenging voting rules designed to prevent fraud and protect the integrity of elections.
A week after the November elections, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court took action against what appeared to be an effort by Democrat-run counties to count ballots that were deemed illegal and ineligible to be counted by both the justices and state law.
This decision came after Democratic officials in Bucks County and other areas announced plans to count ballots that didn't meet the state's legal standards, amid a close race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormack, which the AP called for the Republican.
"I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn't matter anymore in this country," Democratic Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia remarked at the time, voting to count ballots where voters didn’t submit the legally required two signatures on the outside of the envelope. “People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want the court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
Eventually, the matter was resolved, and the counties did not count the ballots deemed illegal.