By a 4-1 vote, Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court ruled on Friday afternoon that mail-in ballot voters who neglect to date the envelope containing their ballot will still that vote counted so long as it is returned on or before election day. The court reached this conclusion despite a state law specifically requiring that the return envelope be dated. Because the state could offer no compelling reason to justify such a requirement, the court ruled that portion of the law concerning mail-in ballots is unconstitutional.
You can ready the court's lengthy, 91-page opinion, written by a Judge Ellen Ceisler, here.
A dissenting opinion by Judge Patricia McCullough, consisting of 56 pages, is located here.
The court's ruling, if it remains in effect until November, will definitely help Democrats, who cast nearly 65% of the mail-in ballots. Missing dates on the return envelope have invalidated a large number of these votes.
But that's a big if, especially since the Pa. Supremes already have ruled once on this question, and their conclusion was that dates were necessary.
Although my heart is with the Commonwealth Court majority and in favor of counting undated ballots so long as they are received on or before election day.
But McCullough is definitely a better writer. I love the stinging sarcasm of her dissent, especially this paragraph:
"The members of the Majority have discarded their judicial robes and donned legislative hats to re-write both the Free and Equal Elections Clause and Act 77, all so that they might invalidate the simplest and perhaps least burdensome of all ballot-casting requirements. Today the Majority says that requiring the date on the voter declaration on a mail-in or absentee ballot envelope is subject to strict judicial scrutiny and cannot be enforced because doing so unconstitutionally denies the voting Franchise altogether. 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. Of course, those everyday ballot-casting requirements are all more burdensome and prohibitive than the voter declaration requirements, but they implicitly remain part of the Election Code. For now."
18 comments:
Here we go again. From Tammany Hall on down through the decades, the cheating never stops.
If the supreme court ruled, how can a lower court change that ruling?
Why was a line printed on the ballot for writing down a date ever included? I imagine, somewhere in the old written instructions, possibly years ago, it stated all ballots must be signed and dated. Now, it seems the date is meaningless.
"...Because the state could offer no compelling reason to justify such a requirement"
So at one time you had to place your name and date on assignments "turned in to the teacher". Apparently now even neglecting to do that still gets you a "smiley face" and full credit beginning in elementary school (God forbid we try to make someone follow the rules). What a scary place Pennsylvania has become in which to live.
Cheating is not to be discussed here, it seems. I will (try) to express this. The massive expansion of mail-in voting has opened new avenues for sure.
I was one of the observers for the Dems in the 2020 election. It was my observation that the actual error made, of failing to include a date, was at similar rates by Democrats and Republicans who chose the MIB but neglected to include the date. Simple math tells us that when D's use mail-ins at double the rate of R's, the error is going to depress Democratic votes.
The rule, though, is pretty pointless. If the board of elections knows that the ballot was mailed on or after October 1st, and is returned by election day with a signature affixed, it is impossible for the ballot to have been signed at any time other than the legal voting period. If a voter fails to sign the MIB, it is discarded and not counted.
I understand why the R's want to gain this advantage in a hotly-contested state like Pennsylvania, but it's not in favor of some grand principle. I put this to my Republican friends and readers of this blog: what is the point of the date requirement?
Even in 2012 the New York Times said more ballots is greater chance of fraud. Of course this was written when more republicans (service people) voted by mail and it was bad. Now dems love mail in voting. Lastly, why are only red state govenors cleaning up the voter rolls. Why won't Shapiro do it?
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impact-elections.html
Circumvention of rules always benefits the party of the lazy, lame, and incompetent. .
It’s why Philadelphia always carries the state in national elections.
The margin of cheating in PA widens. How many Northampton County voters will be disenfranchised this time? Considering one party has never voted for their top candidate - and said candidate was chosen in an unknown and secret process after a primary that all taxpayers paid for - that party doesn't care. I thought democracy died in darkness. It does. But if you publicly complain about back room dealing, you are a threat to democracy. If democracy is dead in Allentown, per this blog, it's corpse is being abused in Pennsylvania.
For one, I would imagine that it would keep late-filed ballots from being counted.
Some courts have found that states have to make accommodations for the mail when accepting MIB’s. So if a MIB is received within a week after Election Day it is arbitrarily assumed to have been mailed on time and has to be counted. Requiring the date is the voter verification that the ballot was actually signed by Election Day. Without it, ballots filled out after Election Day could possibly be counted.
If I had the time, I could come up with other reasons for the date requirement to prevent fraud at other times during PA’s election “season”.
But the whole issue should be irrelevant. Including the date is not burdensome and it is clearly included in the law.
I’ve heard a lot of talk over the last few years that nobody is above the law, but I guess that doesn’t apply to certain voters.
We live in a leta let everyone do whatever they please. No rules. Simple request. Date the envelope. Really??
I never dated my signature at the polls. The date of casting my vote was attested by the election staff and judge of elections. In the same fashion, shouldn't the Chief Clerk of Elections, who has power to notarize, be able to attest and date the mailin ballots on or before election day? In one section of Act 77, it does make referenced "timely received". In another section, it notes the "by writing or stamping, the names of the candidates for whom they desire to vote". Why isn't the post mark that is "stamped" given the same importance and validation of "stamping" the candidates name? Could the voter affixem a date and time stamp the name? It seem perplexing that stamping a candidates name is acceptable as voter intent, but stamping a date by duly qualified voter, post master, or registrar is not.
It seems there several ways to validate "timely received".
Furthermore, throughout Act77, it makes reference to "his" when referring to the voter. Was this written by males for males or written prior to 1920 when women were granted the right to vote?
It amazes me that republicans win any elections. With liberals controlling the schools, the media, the judiciary in this state, they play the long game with the college kids and secondary schools. 90% of college professors are liberal. Republicans have the Supreme Court and Fox News. The media coverage is 85% negative for Trump, 80% plus positive for Harris, despite being the biggest flip flopper in presidential election history. She’s going to win because republicans insist on running Trump. She’ll be a disaster if she gets the Congress also.
Yet you are unable to explain, let alone prove, how mass scale cheating can be accomplished via mail in voting. Its all conspiracy theories with zero substance, yet dimwits continue to push it as a narrative.
Sorry you feel that the entirety of Philadelphia is lazy, lame and incompetent, but it doesnt change the fact that 1.5 million people live there and that is the simple reason it carries the state, its just math. People vote. There are 67 counties in the Commonwealth, if you take the 34 least populated counties and put them all together, they still wouldn't equal Philadelphia. And that doesn't count the suburban Montgomery, Bucks, Chester & Delaware counties that surround it, which bumps the total to 4.1M. Those 4.1M work and pay taxes just like you, but they arent as active, stout and competent like you are.
Dating mail in ballot envelopes is totally unnecessary. All that matters is they arrive on time. The date means NOTHING, so why require it? Ballots are customized to each election, so a date added has no bearing on the authenticity or validity of a ballot.
If you can't follow simple directions on a form perhaps you might have difficulty evaluating and choosing a candidate. But schools have been inflating grades for years now and everyone expects to be a winner. Just read the damn form and follow directions. We can change rules at some point. So much time spent on this issue. Ridiculous. Much in life might be inane when you have governments involved. If my ballot was rejected because I did not follow rules, shame on me. if I consider it dumb then it is up to me to work to change the form in future. What a bunch of whiners. Like all the voters really study the candidates and the platforms.
Post a Comment