PA Supreme Court Blocks Counting of Undated Mail-in Ballots
PA Supreme Court Blocks Counting of Undated Mail-in Ballots
The Facts
Republican Dave McCormick leads Democratic Senator Bob Casey by 17,408 votes with 99.7% of votes counted and 24,000 ballots remaining, triggering an automatic recount due to the margin being less than 0.5 percentage points.The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ruled, in a suit filed by the Republican National Committee and the state GOP, that counties must stop counting mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates on their outer envelopes, specifically directing Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties to comply.
The court's decision came after several Democratic-led counties, including Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks, had voted to count undated ballots despite previous court rulings prohibiting the practice.This comes as Republican Dave McCormick leads Democratic US Sen. Bob Casey by 17,408 votes with 99.7% of votes counted and 24K ballots remaining. The Associated Press has called the election for McCormick, but an automatic recount has been triggered due to the margin being less than 0.5 percent.
The Spin
The dateruling requirementrepresents ona mail-incrucial ballotvictory envelopesfor serveselection nointegrity materialand purposeproper andadherence disenfranchisesto eligiblestate Pennsylvania voterslaw. TheCounty technicalofficials requirementattempting doesto notcount indicateillegal voterballots ineligibilitywere ordeliberately ballotviolating illegitimacy,clear court precedent and throwingelection outcode theserequirements. votesThis overdecision minorensures clericalthat errorsonly underminesproperly democraticcompleted participationballots will be counted in determining the final election outcome.
The date requirement on mail-in ballot envelopes serves no material purpose and disenfranchises eligible Pennsylvania voters. The technical requirement does not indicate voter ineligibility or ballot illegitimacy, and throwing out these votes over minor clerical errors undermines democratic participation.
