The judge ruled that the date requirement violated certain sections of the US constitution.
Pennsylvania can no longer invalidate mail-in ballots received without accurate, handwritten dates on the front of the envelope. The decision is the latest in a string of legal challenges to Pennsylvania’s requirements for proper date and time formatting, which took effect after the 2020 Presidential election. In the 2022 midterms, nearly 10,000 ballots were disqualified due to violations of the policy, leading to challenges from some civil rights groups and the Pennsylvania Democratic party. The Republican party plans to file an appeal of the latest decision, and the state Supreme Court has already said they would consider hearing the case.
While those in favor of the law argue that it significantly curbs voter fraud and mismanagement, opponents claim that it violates sections of the U.S. constitution including the First Amendment, a point Judge Susan Paradise Baxter made. Judge Baxter cited that most counties did not argue that the exterior dates did not play a role in determining whether a ballot was received on time and therefore was not critical to the counting of the vote.
The judge wrote in her decision, “Absent from the record, however, is any evidence demonstrating how this requirement furthers that purported interest.” Despite arguments made by the Republican party, she continued that the exterior date “impaired the right to vote under the First and 14th amendments.” RNC Spokesperson Abigail Jackson says the organization has already filed an appeal. Berks County, which has a population of nearly half a million people, was specifically noted in the ruling for its argument that the dates did help determine when an envelope was received. Berks County attorney Jeff Bukowski said that they too were considering an appeal, but that county commissioners had not yet decided.
Judge Baxter further ruled that absent any evidence that the exterior date provides a significant barrier to illegal voting, that “there was no valid state interest to weigh this against.” She agreed with Democrats and other challenging organizations that called the requirement of exterior dates little more than a compliance test.
The decision comes with added legal complexity after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has made several rulings that blocked lower court orders deeming the requirement unconstitutional from taking effect. The most recent ruling from the state Supreme Court came on November 1st and blocked a previous challenge to the mandate. A previous decision by Baxter also found the dates to be irrelevant to the validity of the ballot and was later overturned by the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals. In that ruling, Judge Thomas Ambro disputed challenges that the law violated the 14th amendment, arguing that broader ballot-casting rules were not at issue in the 1964 amendment, and is “considered only with the process of determining a voter’s eligibility to cast a ballot.”
Gov. Shapiro’s office introduced a ballot redesign in 2024 with the intent to reduce voter confusion about date and time stamps, but did not address the legal issues that the law was facing. While some officials have argued against the inclusion of an outer security envelope on a mail-in ballot altogether, the Pennsylvania Chief Justice Max Baer argued it was a needed security step, something that is likely to factor into any future appeals.
