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Federal Appeals Court Bars Pennsylvania From Rejecting Mail Ballots Over Envelope Dates

The unanimous Third Circuit panel said tossing ballots for date errors on return envelopes burdens voting rights without improving election security.

FILE - Election workers recount ballots from the recent Pennsylvania Senate race at the Allegheny County Election Division warehouse on the Northside of Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Electoral workers sort through envelopes to make sure no ballots are left inside them during ballot counting for the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Election Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 5, 2024. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
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Overview

  • The three-judge 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered counties to stop discarding mail ballots solely for missing or incorrect handwritten dates on return envelopes and to count them if otherwise eligible.
  • The decision affirms a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, with the opinion authored by Judge D. Brooks Smith and joined by Judges Arianna Freeman and Patty Shwartz.
  • The court found the date field offers little to no fraud-detection value and has led to the disqualification of thousands of presumably valid ballots in recent elections.
  • Election records cited in coverage show roughly 17,000 such ballots were rejected in the 2023 primary, about 10,000 in the 2022 general election, and about 4,500 last year.
  • Plaintiffs included the American Federation of Teachers and Democratic House and Senate campaign arms with allied groups, while the Republican National Committee and state GOP defended the rule and are weighing appeals as Attorney General Dave Sunday reviews options.