(Capital-Star photo)
A group of voter rights organizations has asked a Pennsylvania court to revive its lawsuit challenging Philadelphia and Allegheny counties’ disqualification of mail-in ballots that are returned to election officials on time, but without a handwritten date on the return envelope.
The 10 organizations, led by the Black Political Empowerment Project and represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, asked Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler to allow them correct a procedural error that prompted the state’s highest court to throw out a ruling in their favor.
The state Supreme Court on Friday vacated the 4-1 Commonwealth Court decision that the dating requirement contained in Act 77, which expanded absentee voting, violates the Pennsylvania Constitution’s guarantee of the right to vote.
The Supreme Court said Commonwealth Court lacked authority to hear the case without the inclusion of each of Pennsylvania’s county boards of elections. It also said that naming Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt was insufficient to give the court jurisdiction over the voting groups’ claims.
In a hearing Tuesday, according to court documents, Ceisler indicated she would allow the voting rights groups to correct the error by adding the other 65 county boards of elections as parties in the case and that she would reconsider their claims on an expedited basis.
The Republican National Committee in a Supreme Court filing on Tuesday argued that Ceisler’s decision to allow further proceedings was improper and exceeds the court’s authority. The Republicans asked the Supreme Court to enforce its order and dismiss the case.
“Any further proceedings in this case not only contravene this Court’s Order, but also threaten to unleash ‘voter confusion,’ “chaos,’ … and an erosion of the public “[c]onfidence in the integrity of our electoral processes [that] is essential to the functioning of participatory democracy,” the RNC said in its filing.
“This is especially true if the Commonwealth Court reissues an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the date requirement on the eve of, or even after, the imminent opening of the mail-voting period for the 2024 general election in which millions of Pennsylvanians will cast their ballots for President, U.S. Senate, U.S. Representative, and numerous state and local offices,” the filing continued.
Schmidt on Monday officially certified the list of candidates for the Nov. 5 election, which clears the way for counties to begin printing and issuing mail ballots. The Department of State has a mail ballot availability page with county-by-county updates. Voters can apply for a mail ballot online or mail in a paper ballot request, or request a mail ballot in person at their county election office until the Oct. 29 deadline. Mail ballots have to be returned to county election offices by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania officially filed its application to add the 65 counties and revive the case on Wednesday. Ceisler ordered the opposing parties, which include the state and national Republican parties, to file responses by Thursday afternoon.
Whether mail-in ballots returned without a date or an incorrect date should be counted has been a subject of litigation since 2020, when Pennsylvania first allowed voting by mail without an excuse for not going to the polls in person. The challenge led by the Black Political Empowerment Project was the first to address the constitutionality of the law.
In each election since no-excuse mail voting began, candidates have challenged the counting of ballots returned without signatures, dates, with partial dates, and with incorrect dates, such as the voter’s birthday.
Mail ballots are also rejected when they are returned without the inner envelope, which is meant to be completely blank and ensure the secrecy of each ballot.
The number of mail-in ballots that have been disqualified for such errors is not trivial. Despite efforts by the Pennsylvania Department of State to reduce the number of rejected ballots by redesigning the instructions and envelopes, more than 1% of mail ballots were rejected in the April primary election, according to one analysis.
Parties in the cases have disagreed on whether the dating requirement serves a purpose, but voting rights advocates said it is clear that the timeliness of mail-in ballots is determined by when they are received in county elections offices and not the date on the envelope.
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