Keystone Today

Saturday’s state Supreme Court follow-up ruling on undated ballots leaves an opening for some ballots to be counted, even though the court had ruled less than a week before that the ballots must be set aside and not counted, says Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project.

Snead called the follow-up ruling “very broad” and said it ignores several factors worth considering “when questioning whether a ballot was incorrectly dated.”

“For instance, the date a ballot is printed, postmarked, or received. Considering only the earliest possible mailing date for whole categories of ballots means ballots that are incorrectly dated may still be counted,” Snead told Keystone Today.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court ruled that mail ballots are to be rejected if handwritten dates – required by state law on the ballot envelopes -- fall before Sept. 19, 2022, or after Election Day. Ballots of absentee voters, those with an excuse for not voting in person, are to be rejected if they are dated before Aug. 30, 2022, or after Election Day.

The ruling was intended to clarify a ruling from a week ago that undated mail ballots be set aside. The original lawsuit was brought by state and national GOP groups. Recent polling has the race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz too close to call. The winner could decide control of the U.S. Senate.

On Monday, the Fetterman campaign filed a suit in federal court to count ballots if they weren't signed with the required date. Snead said he expects more lawsuits to follow.

“The left is framing this whole issue as an attempt by conservatives to disqualify ballots,” he said. “That is not true. Lawsuits by the Republican National Committee and others are about ensuring the law is followed.”

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ritter v. Migliori that the requirement in state law to date the ballot envelopes did not violate the 1964 Civil Rights Acts as alleged by Democratic officials. Despite the ruling, Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, instructed the counties – prior to the state Supreme Court ruling but after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling – to count the ballots.

More recently, Chapman requested that the counties separate the undated ballots by party affiliation prior to Tuesday’s elections. Some of the counties have refused.

State Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), who has led election reform efforts in the General Assembly, chastised Chapman in a Nov. 6 letter.

“I can think of no non-partisan reason why the Pennsylvania Department of State would need a count of such ballots by party affiliation,” Grove said. “Nor can many of my colleagues across Pennsylvania. Nor can we recall a time when the Department of State has ever made such a request during a general election.”