PA Mail-In Voting Law Challenged In Court Again Weeks Before Election

HARRISBURG, PA — With just weeks to go before the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans are once again trying to overthrow Pennsylvania's mail-in voting law, long a focal point for election-deniers questioning the veracity of the 2020 election.

This time, the GOP is contesting the legality of counting ballots that lack the date handwritten on the return envelope by the voter. Republicans argue that the letter of the law requires mail-in ballots have the dates handwritten by voters on the envelope. They say it's a matter of security and election integrity.

Democrats say it's disenfranchising voters on a technicality.

The case was submitted to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The court is not under obligation to listen to the case.

It comes just a week after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a federal Circuit Court ruling that had previously said ballots without a date must be counted. This leaves the future in a gray area; the Pennsylvania Secretary of State is in charge of running the 2022 election and has been adamant these votes must be counted.

The issue arose during the primaries and the 2021 election, and lingered for months over the summer as certain Republican-run counties used it to refuse to certify primary results. Gov. Tom Wolf's administration and the Secretary of State sued to force these results to be submitted.

"There is no longer doubt that the ballots the county boards refuse to include—timely received absentee and mail-in ballots cast by qualified voters who neglected to write a date on the declaration printed on the ballot’s return envelope—were lawfully cast and must be included in the certified returns," the lawsuit states.

It drew reaction far and wide, as Pennsylvania remains a swing state where court decisions and midterm election results now in 2022 could have lasting, long term effects. Former White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki criticized the suit Monday.

"If you are arguing in court to throw out ballots that don't have a date on them (PA GOP we see you) it doesn't come across as a vote of confidence in your slate of candidates," she said.

Meanwhile, in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, State Sen. Jim Brewster is poised to introduce a bill eliminating the requirement that the outside envelope on such ballots require a handwritten date to be valid.

The Pittsburgh-area Democrat is suggesting that mail-in or absentee ballots should only be required by county board of elections to be received or postmarked by the date of the election to be counted.

Currently, absentee and mail-in ballots require voters to fill out, sign and date the return envelope that contains the ballot and secrecy envelope. But as Brewster noted in a statement, "No one has offered a viable reason why these ballots must be dated by the voter in order to be counted or why the postmark is insufficient evidence of timeliness."

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not given an indication when, or if, they will hear the latest Republican challenge to mail-in voting.