Penn Capital-Star: Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates won’t be counted

Peter Hall of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling that ballots returned without a date, or with an incorrect date, will not be counted.

The ongoing saga of whether mail-in ballots without the proper date on the external envelope should or should not be counted may not yet be over, but Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Thursday sought to clear up confusion about its Sept. 13 decision on the matter.

As far as the high court is concerned, mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania without a date on the outside envelope —  even if returned to a county election office on time — should not be counted.

Last week the court threw out a Commonwealth Court ruling that the ballots should be counted. Voter rights groups tried to revive the case, but in response to a request by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to clarify its ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the Commonwealth Court to dismiss the lawsuit.

So to recap: This means, for now, that mail-in ballots returned without a date on the outside of the envelope will not be counted in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represents the voter rights groups, said it is considering its next legal steps.

“This is not the end of the road on this issue,” spokesperson Andy Hoover said Thursday.

With a month and a half before the presidential election in which Pennsylvania is expected to play a pivotal role, a former top election official told the Capital-Star that voters need to simply ignore the noise of the lawsuits and closely follow the instructions on their mail-in ballots.