New lawsuit seeks to prevent mail-in ballots from being thrown out due to handwritten dates – NBC10 Philadelphia

A new lawsuit filed Tuesday by a constellation of left-wing groups in Pennsylvania seeks to prevent thousands of mail-in ballots from being thrown out in the November election in a battleground state expected to play a pivotal role in selecting a new president.

The lawsuit, filed in state court, is the latest of perhaps a half-dozen cases challenging a provision of Pennsylvania law that requires voters to write the date when signing their mail-in ballot envelope.

Voters’ failure to understand that provision has meant tens of thousands of ballots have lacked an accurate date since Pennsylvania dramatically expanded mail-in voting in a 2019 law.

The latest lawsuit says several courts have determined that a date written by voters is meaningless in determining whether the ballot arrived on time or whether the voter is eligible. As a result, rejecting someone’s ballot because it lacks a date or because it has a correct date should violate the free and equal elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, according to the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit is the only one that directly addresses the constitutionality of disenfranchising voters under the Pennsylvania Constitution,” said Marian Schneider, an attorney on the case and senior political advisor on voting rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. .

In the lawsuit, plaintiffs’ attorneys, including the ACLU, the Public Interest Law Center and the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, referenced a 2023 opinion in which state Supreme Court justices appeared to invite such challenge. In it, they suggested that the free and equal elections clause would effectively prevent ballots from being thrown out for not meeting the date requirement.

Enforcement of the dating provision resulted in at least 10,000 ballots being discarded in the 2022 midterm elections alone, according to the lawsuit. Lawyers in the case said research shows that a disproportionate share of rejected votes come from older voters, poorer districts and black and Latino communities.

The lawsuit names Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s top elections official, as well as the election boards in Philadelphia and Allegheny County, both heavily Democratic jurisdictions.

However, Democrats have repeatedly fought to undo the date requirement, while Republicans in the past have fought in court to ensure that counties can and do discard mail-in ballots that lack a date. complete or correct.

About three-quarters of mail-in votes tend to be cast by Democrats in Pennsylvania, possibly as a result of former President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that mail-in voting is rife with fraud.

Shapiro’s State Department had no comment on the lawsuit. But he said in a statement that it is “irrefutably clear that the handwritten date serves no function in the administration of Pennsylvania’s elections” and that he has consistently argued in court that voters’ ballots should not be rejected for incorrect writing. .

A November vote in Pennsylvania that will likely include President Joe Biden and Trump at the top of the ticket will also include a high-profile Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick.

Republicans are urging their voters to vote by mail. Still, national Republican groups signaled they will oppose the lawsuit.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee accused Democrats of trying to “change the rules at the last minute in a desperate attempt to retain power.” The Republican National Committee said the date requirement is an “important safeguard of election integrity” and that lawsuits like the one filed Tuesday “are designed to undermine voter confidence and make voting by mail less secure.” .

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Black Political Empowerment Project, POWER Interfaith, Make the Road Pennsylvania, OnePA Activists United, New PA Project Education Fund, Casa San José, Pittsburgh United, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Common Cause Pennsylvania.

A separate challenge to the date requirement over whether it violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the equal protection clause of the Constitution is currently pending in federal court. In March, a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the date requirement does not violate civil rights law.