Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hands GOP Win in Mail-In Ballot Dispute

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court blocked an effort to allow the counting of mail-in ballots lacking a handwritten date in the 2024 election.

The Details: On Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s intermediate Common Wealth Court said the state’s constitution would require those ballots to be counted, but on Friday the state’s Supreme Court said the ruling “is stayed and shall not be applied to the November 5, 2024 general election.” The decision comes after Republicans appealed to the high court on October 31.

For Context: Pennsylvania is a tightly contested battleground state that in the 2020 presidential election was decided by a margin of just over 1%. On November 1, the U.S. Supreme Court declined a Republican request to overrule a lower court decision allowing provisional in-person ballots for Pennsylvania voters who make mistakes on their mail-in ballot.

The Rulings: Justice Kevin Dougherty criticized the Commonwealth Court for its ruling, writing, “‘This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election.’ We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago. Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds.” The Commonwealth Court’s earlier, now nullified ruling, read, “Enforcement of the dating provisions has resulted in the arbitrary and baseless rejection of thousands of timely ballots, resulting in disenfranchisement in violation of the free and equal elections clause.”

How the Media Covered It: The story was not the most widely covered by mainstream media. Both Bloomberg (Lean Left bias) and Fox News (Right bias) highlighted the decision as a win for Republicans.