HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Friday it will again consider whether voters should have to write the accurate date on return envelopes used to send their completed mail-in ballots to be counted.
The requirement in state law has generated more than a half-dozen court cases in the past four years, including several that reached the state Supreme Court.
The justices said they will decide whether the dating rule for absentee and mail ballot return envelopes violates a state constitutional provision that elections must be free and equal.
“The constitutional challenge in this appeal is based on the fact, established through years of litigation, that the dating requirements advance no ‘weighty interest’ and serve no purpose in the election process,” wrote Justice Christine Donohue, one of five Democrats on the seven-justice court.
Donohue, joined by one other Democrat, argued the court’s decision to take the case should have gone further and addressed “enforcement of the dating requirements before embarking on an analysis of its constitutionality.”
The case involves 69 mail-in ballots from two state House special elections that a Philadelphia judge had said should be counted even though they lacked a handwritten date on the return envelope.
The statewide Commonwealth Court upheld that decision 3-2 in late October. But the Supreme Court almost immediately put a hold on it and said it would not apply to the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Democrats and voting rights groups in the past have challenged the dating provision in the law, saying ballots are being rejected over a meaningless clerical requirement. Republicans insist the date is an important security feature — even though counties don't use it to determine whether the ballot arrived before the deadline.
Mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania have been the subject of repeatedlitigation since absentee and mail-in ballots were allowed for all registered voters by the Legislature in 2019.
Lower courts have repeatedly deemed it unconstitutional or illegal to throw out ballots lacking an accurate handwritten date on the envelope. But higher courts — including the state Supreme Court — have blocked those decisions from taking effect.
As part of their order Friday, the justices said they would consider whether declaring the exterior envelope date mandate unconstitutional would invalidate the entire 2019 law.
Mark Scolforo, The Associated Press
