Federal Appeals Court Says Pennsylvania Ballot Date Requirement Violates Constitution

‘We are unable to justify the Commonwealth’s practice of discarding ballots contained in return envelopes with missing or incorrect dates,’ the court said.

Election workers process mail-in and absentee ballots at West Chester University in West Chester, Pa., on Nov. 4, 2020. Matt Slocum/AP Photo

Pennsylvania’s requirement that election officials reject ballots with missing dates violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled on Aug. 26.

The requirement burdens the constitutional right to vote, and state officials have not provided enough evidence supporting their argument that state interests outweigh that burden, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said.

“While the Commonwealth has raised legitimate interests related to voting, we see only tangential links, at best, between these interests and the date requirement that Pennsylvania imposes on mail-in voters. The date requirement does not play a role in election administration, nor does it contribute an added measure of solemnity beyond that created by a signature. And only in the exceedingly rare circumstance does it contribute to the prosecution of voter fraud,” Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith said in the 55-page ruling.

“Weighing these interests against the burden on voters, we are unable to justify the Commonwealth’s practice of discarding ballots contained in return envelopes with missing or incorrect dates that has resulted in the disqualification of thousands of presumably proper ballots.”

Uzoma Nkwonta, a partner at Elias Law Group who helped represent the plaintiffs, said in an emailed statement, “This ruling is a decisive victory for voting rights and democratic participation in Pennsylvania.”

“We are reviewing the ruling and assessing options,” a spokesman for Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, who intervened to defend the requirement, told The Epoch Times in an email.

A state law mandated that voters fill out, date, and sign envelopes containing mail ballots. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the law required county election officials to discard the envelopes and ballots inside if the date was missing or incorrect.

More than 10,000 ballots cast in the 2022 election and 4,500 ballots cast in the 2024 election were rejected under the requirement.

A voter and Democratic groups sued, arguing the law infringed on constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter in March ruled in their favor, finding that the requirement violated the constitutional rights of Pennsylvanians because it burdened voters and there was “no evidence that the date requirement serves any state interest.”

The Republican National Committee, joined by the attorney general of Pennsylvania, appealed.

They said the requirement helps officials run elections efficiently, promotes solemnity, and assists in the detection and deterrence of voter fraud.

Those are all legitimate state interests, but the appellants did not offer evidence establishing strong enough links between them and the requirement, according to the appeals court.

“If anything, requiring county election boards to check the date field on return envelopes seems to hamper efficiency by foisting an additional responsibility on the boards for no apparent purpose,” Smith said.

There is also no precedent for the position that dating a return envelope marks casting a vote as a serious and solemn act, the judge said.

While Republicans put forth evidence that the requirements help officials investigate voter fraud, that evidence indicated that the requirement “will not protect against the vast majority of attempts at voter fraud,” according to the panel.