Supreme Court reverses lower court decision which allowed undated mail-in ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania
CBSFeb 10, 2023
US Midterms: Pa. Court Says Misdated Mail-In Ballots Won't Be Counted
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Image copyright: Bloomberg/Getty Images [via Daily Wire]
The Facts
General election ballots that are mailed in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes cannot be counted by election boards, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled.
The decision came after the acting [Democratic] Secretary of State decided that undated ballots would be included in the final count ahead of this month's midterms. According to the court's order, the state's county board of elections will separate and preserve ballots that meet these criteria, rather than count them.
Justices on the state's Supreme Court were divided when the issue was raised in 2020, with three ruling that such votes should count and three that they shouldn't. The issue was eventually settled when a fourth justice concluded they should count in the 2020 elections, but not beyond — a decision which prompted several lawsuits at the state and federal level.
The Spin
Republican narrative
This is a victory for the voters of Pennsylvania. Republicans have protected the rule of law by successfully taking this flaw in voting security to court. The GOP is helping to uphold democracy by safeguarding election integrity.
Democratic narrative
This ruling will do nothing except disenfranchise voters based on an irrelevant technicality. The GOP has, once again, undermined democracy by deliberately making it harder for Democrats to vote, in violation of the federal Civil Rights Act. In such close upcoming elections, a minority of erroneous votes could swing the results — Democrats must vote carefully in this precarious situation.
