Federal appeals court rules Pennsylvania must only count mail ballots with dates, signatures

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that Pennsylvania may enforce state law requiring envelopes for mail-in ballots to be dated and include the voter's signature.

In Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP v. Chapman, the plaintiff sued the then-acting secretary of the commonwealth in 2022 regarding Pennsylvania’s decision to void mail-in ballots that are either missing a date on the outer return envelopes or have an incorrect date.

Pennsylvania counties were ordered by a lower court following a Republican lawsuit in 2022 to reject undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots. The issue was then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. 

The NAACP argued that the mail-in ballots are valid – regardless of the incorrect or missing date – and should be counted. 

In the November 2022 election, 10,000 mail-in ballots weren't accepted because they had incorrect or missing dates.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the circuit court ruled that the state law be enforced.

Derek Lyons, president of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, said in a statement on Wednesday:

“Left-wing activists have spent an untold fortune trying to stop Pennsylvania from enforcing its mail ballot safeguards. Today, a federal appellate court definitively rejected their argument. Too many voters doubt the integrity of elections because of an unrelenting assault on election laws from left-wing partisan litigators. The court’s ruling today is a clear statement that state legislatures, not courts, should make election laws. RITE is proud to have played a supporting role in this case.”