State court stops PA from tossing out mail-in ballots due to incorrect dates on envelopes

A court in Pennsylvania ruled Friday that the state cannot throw out mail-in ballots just because they have incorrect handwritten dates on the envelopes.

This ruling will likely stop thousands of Pennsylvania votes from being tossed out for the upcoming election in November. 

The decision was made in a 4-1 ruling.

“The refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote in the Pennsylvania Constitution," Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote in the opinion, according to ABC News.

Judge Patricia McCullough said the ruling was “a wholesale abandonment of common sense,” in a lone dissent. 

Her point, according to GoErie, is that this is an example of legislating from the bench. She says it's not unreasonable or overly burdensome to have voters follow simple balloting procedures like correctly dating a mail-in envelope.

“I must wonder whether walking into a polling place, signing your name, licking an envelope, or going to the mailbox can now withstand the Majority’s newly minted standard,” wrote Judge McCullough in her dissent.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said the ruling was a “a victory for Pennsylvanians’ fundamental right to vote."