Janice R. Andrews
Today, a group of federal justices affirmed Pennsylvania’s policy of enforcing the dates on mail-in votes. This decision is crucial. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is divided, overturned a prior lower court ruling that supported proponents of voting rights and held that the state may demand accurate handwritten dates on the outer envelopes of mail-in ballots.
Judges in the NAACP v. Schmidt lawsuit returned a technical mandate in favor of applying the date requirement, invalidating thousands of votes in the 2022 election. The decision has brought scrutiny to Pennsylvania’s voting practices, especially in light of the state’s impending primary on April 23.
Voters must make sure the right date is written on the outside envelope of their mail-in ballot, indicating that it should be the date they completed the ballot rather than their birthdate, according the ruling. According to Pennsylvania law, if this criteria is not met, the ballot is deemed illegal.
This result comes after a court battle concerning the dates on mail-in ballot envelopes. Previously, a lower court held that ballots should be tallied regardless of whether they had the correct dates on them, provided that they are received on time. The appeals court did stress that the Civil Rights Act applies only to the procedure of evaluating a voter’s eligibility, not to voting laws in general.
Organizations like the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which claimed that rejecting voters for small administrative mistakes compromises election integrity, have criticized the decision. Organizations like Common Cause Pennsylvania have committed to keep up their efforts to guarantee that every qualified vote is tallied in spite of this setback.
However, state and national Republican organizations have celebrated the ruling as a major win for voter confidence and election integrity. This decision has additional significance because of the differences in Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting between Republicans and Democrats.
The persistent issues in guaranteeing fair and accessible elections are highlighted by the ongoing discussion over mail-in ballot processes and voter rights, which is gaining attention as Pennsylvania prepares for its primary election.
