WHAT IS PENNSYLVANIA’S MAIL-IN BALLOT DATING RULE?

Overruling a previous lower court ruling on Monday, a federal appeals court panel said that undated Pennsylvania mail-in ballots should not be counted regardless of their arrival at the election office on time.

A 2-1 ruling of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the enforcement of dated return envelopes, addressing a battle that began in 2020. The potential US Supreme Court clash will work out an essential deciding factor for the upcoming presidential elections slated for the fall. The emerging technical mandate rendered over ten thousand votes invalid in the 2022 election.

Even though the US state may seem to bring in a relatively small number in the larger scheme of things during the electorate war, the recent ruling has spotlighted Pennsylvania significantly. What does this mean in the bigger picture?

What is the Pennsylvania mail-in ballot dating rule?

In November 2023, a lower court ruled that even mail-in ballots without proper dates should be counted if arriving at the election office in time. US District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter declared the envelope date inconsequential when deciding whether the voter was disqualified.

Also read | What is Pink Cocaine, emerging as a big link between Diddy and Yung Miami?

The 1964 Civil Rights Act inspired the previous ruling. One of its voting rights prohibits officials from denying “the right of any individual to vote in any Federal election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting.”

However, during the Wednesday ruling, Judge Thomas Ambro claimed this section was irrelevant to broad ballot-casting rules. He stated that it is “concerned only with the process of determining a voter’s eligibility to cast a ballot.”

He ultimately declared that the Pennsylvania General Assembly had decided that voters must date the return envelope of their ballot “to make their vote effective.” Since the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania “unanimously” credited this as a mandatory requisite, “failure to comply renders a ballot invalid under Pennsylvania law.”

Also read | Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow Writer dies - 10 life-changing quotes he gave the world

Contradicting the Supreme Court ruling, Ari Savitzky, American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania Voting Rights Project lawyer, expressed the union's collective ‘strong disagreement’ with the conclusion. Mike Lee, ACLU's executive director in Pennsylvania, also voiced his concerns about thousands of the state residents losing their vote “over a meaningless paperwork error.”

The 2019 Act 77 popularised the voting-by-mail option, but incorrectly filled-out ballots have been a red flag for rising debates ever since. To effectively rise above the legal disputes, Pennsylvania redesigned the mail-in ballots in 2023 for the upcoming 2024 primary. These revised ballots are expected to roll out in 67 counties and hope to actively remind voters to date their envelopes under their signatures.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com

2024-03-28T19:11:23Z dg43tfdfdgfd