A federal appeals court has ruled that Pennsylvania’s requirement for voters to handwrite a date on their mail ballot envelopes is unconstitutional, finding that the rule disenfranchises thousands of voters while offering little benefit to election administrators.
The decision, issued Tuesday by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, stems from a lawsuit filed by Erie County voter Bette Eakin, whose 2022 ballot was rejected because she failed to write a date. A unanimous three-judge panel concluded that the burden imposed by the date requirement outweighed any state interest in maintaining it.
The court noted that ballots have been routinely discarded for trivial errors — such as flipped numbers, stray marks, or missing dates — with voters often unaware their votes were invalidated. In 2022 alone, voting rights advocates estimate more than 10,000 ballots were rejected for dating errors. Even after ballot envelopes were redesigned, about 4,500 mail ballots were disqualified in 2024.
Democratic leaders hailed the ruling as a victory for voting rights, arguing that Republicans had used the requirement as a tool to exclude legitimate ballots. Republicans countered that the rule was a basic safeguard written into state law, and vowed to explore further legal action. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania GOP said party lawyers are considering asking the full 3rd Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
The ruling adds a new chapter to the ongoing fight over Pennsylvania’s mail voting system, adopted in 2020 under Act 77. The law made no-excuse mail voting widely available, leading to a surge in participation but also sparking partisan battles over ballot handling rules.
In its opinion, the appeals court rejected arguments that the dating rule was essential to prevent fraud, pointing out that in six years of mail voting, it has rarely played a role in detecting wrongdoing. Instead, the panel concluded the requirement hampers rather than improves election efficiency.
Unless overturned, the ruling means ballots lacking properly written dates will count in upcoming elections, reshaping how counties handle mail voting in one of the nation’s most closely watched swing states.
Source: PA Capital-Star