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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket dominated Friday that mail-in ballots with out the proper dates on envelopes can’t be counted in elections, a call which might show essential on this 12 months’s presidential election the place 19 electoral faculty votes are up for grabs.
The state’s excessive courtroom dominated on procedural grounds, saying a decrease courtroom that discovered the mandate unenforceable shouldn’t have taken up the case as a result of it didn’t draw within the election boards in all 67 counties. Left-leaning teams that filed the case solely sued two of them, Philadelphia and Allegheny counties.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket stated the decrease Commonwealth Court docket “lacked material jurisdiction to overview the matter,” in response to a courtroom submitting.
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An election employee flattens ballots in the course of the 2024 Pennsylvania main election on the Metropolis of Philadelphia’s Election Warehouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 23, 2024. The Pennsylvania Supreme courtroom dominated Friday that mail-in ballots with out the proper dates on envelopes can’t be counted in elections, a call which might show essential on this 12 months’s presidential election. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)
Commonwealth Court docket two weeks in the past halted enforcement of the handwritten dates on exterior envelopes. Friday’s ruling now means mail-in ballots have to be correctly dated so as to be counted enforceable.
The ruling was welcomed by Republicans as a victory for voter integrity within the hotly contested state, whereas voting rights advocates together with the American Civil Liberties Union stated they’ll have a look at pursuing extra authorized choices.
President Joe Biden gained the state by greater than 80,000 votes in 2020, and former President Trump and Vice-President Harris have been campaigning within the Keystone State this week.
Over 800,000 folks requested mail ballots for April’s main election the place officers disqualified practically 16,000 mail-in ballots for irregularities. Nearly half have been disqualified due to points equivalent to lacking signatures and flawed dates on outer envelopes, in response to the New York Instances. About 75% of the mail-in ballots requested have been made by Democrats.
Round 2.5 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail in 2020, in response to a lawsuit filed by Republicans within the aftermath of the election which sought to declare common mail-in voting unconstitutional.
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Former President Trump and Vice-President Harris have been campaigning closely within the Keystone State. (Left: (Photograph by SAUL LOEB/AFP through Getty Pictures), Proper: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley stated the Friday ruling was a “large” win for election integrity.
“Following authorized motion from the RNC and @PAGOP [Republican Party of Pennsylvania], the PA Supreme Court docket REJECTED a Democrat try and depend undated ballots,” Whatley wrote. “This makes mail voting within the Keystone State much less prone to fraud. We are going to maintain combating and profitable!”
Steve Loney, the senior supervising lawyer for the ACLU in Pennsylvania, stated the ruling was a setback for Pennsylvania voters.
“These eligible voters who obtained their ballots in on time ought to have their votes counted and voices heard,” Loney stated. “The elemental proper to vote is among the many most treasured rights we take pleasure in as Pennsylvanians, and it ought to take greater than a trivial paperwork error to take it away.”
The justices dominated 4-3, with two Democrats becoming a member of each Republicans on the Supreme Court docket to vacate the Commonwealth Court docket choice.
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RNC Chairman Michael Whatley stated the Friday ruling was a “large” win for election integrity. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
The dissent by three different Democratic justices stated the excessive courtroom ought to have taken up the dispute.
“A immediate and definitive ruling on the constitutional query introduced on this enchantment is of paramount public significance inasmuch as it is going to have an effect on the counting of ballots within the upcoming basic election,” wrote Justice David Wecht. He and the 2 different dissenters would have dominated on the matter primarily based on written briefs.
Previous to the 2020 election, Republicans sought to stop mail-in ballots acquired after election day from being counted, however in the end, the Supreme Court docket sided with the Pennsylvania Supreme courtroom choice permitting ballots to be counted in the event that they have been acquired inside three days of election day, even when they didn’t have a legible postmark.
The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a author for Fox Information Digital and Fox Enterprise.
You’ll be able to ship tricks to michael.dorgan@fox.com and comply with him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
Pennsylvania mail-in ballots with out appropriate dates won’t be counted, courtroom guidelines
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