Pennsylvania Court Says Improperly Dated Mail Ballots Must Be Counted, In ‘Untethered And Unprecedented’ Ruling

With Friday’s ruling, thousands of improperly dated ballots may now be counted in a key swing state in the upcoming presidential election.

A Pennsylvania court Friday sided with left-wing special interests, blocking the state from enforcing part of a law that required mail ballots to be properly dated in order to be counted In a 4-1 ruling, which saw President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer — elected as a Republican — side with three elected Democrat judges, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania majority sided with the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union and the Black Political Empowerment Project, among others, declaring the “strict enforcement” of state law (Act 77) requiring election officials to reject improperly dated or undated mail-in ballots “unconstitutional.” Calling the decision a “wholesale abandonment of common sense” made in an “untethered and unprecedented fashion,” Judge Patricia A. McCullough described in a scathing dissent how the court majority bent over backward to ensure Pennsylvania voters did not have to date their mail-in ballots: “[T]o reach its desired end, the Majority today (1) finds jurisdiction where it does not exist, (2) ignores more than a century of sound Pennsylvania Supreme Court precedent interpreting the Free and Equal Elections Clause, (3) applies strict scrutiny without any authority for doing so, (4) accepts Petitioners’ invitation to usurp the role of the General Assembly and re-write Act 77 of 2019 (Act 77), and, in a twist of tragic irony, (5) voids altogether absentee and mail-in voting in Pennsylvania.” Act 77 was passed in 2019 as part of Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law.

Act 77 was passed in 2019 as part of Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law. State statute includes the requirement that “an absentee ‘elector shall. . .fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on’ the second, or outer, envelope ‘on which is printed the form of declaration of the elector,'” as cited in the majority opinion.

Schmidt, for his part, is also named as head of the Pennsylvania Election Threats Task Force.

Schmidt’s office did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment regarding the statement he made on Friday about the court’s ruling.

The majority opinion, however, while citing “prior litigation,” stated that “the date on the outer mail-in ballot envelopes is not used to determine the timeliness of a ballot, a voter’s qualifications/eligibility to vote, or fraud.

With Friday’s ruling, thousands of improperly dated ballots may now be counted in Pennsylvania, a key swing state in the upcoming presidential election. 

https://thefederalist.com/2024/09/03/pennsylvania-court-says-improperly-dated-mail-ballots-must-be-counted-in-untethered-and-unprecedented-ruling/