Posted on 03/28/2024 8:57:41 AM PDT by lightman
As a result of an appeal filed by the Republican National Committee, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 late Wednesday that mail-in ballots without dates or with unqualified dates cannot be counted in Pennsylvania elections.
"In the November 2020 and November 2022 elections, thousands of Pennsylvania mail-in voters did not comply with the date requirement. Some voters omitted the date altogether, others put shortened or obviously incorrect dates. As county boards took different approaches to enforcing the date requirement, litigation began, and the Materiality Provision took center stage. A panel of this Court ruled this federal law does apply outside the voter registration context and was violated by the date requirement now (again) before us. But that decision has since been vacated as moot by the Supreme Court. Ritter v. Migliori, 143 S. Ct. 297 (2022)," the ruling states.
"The validity of enforcing the date requirement thus remained uncertain as a matter of federal law. But the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania soon settled the issue for state law purposes. See Ball v. Chapman, 289 A.3d 1, 20-23 (Pa. 2023). It unanimously agreed the command in Pennsylvania’s Election Code that mail-in voters 'shall . . . date' the declaration was 'unambiguous and mandatory' as a matter of statutory interpretation; so omitting the date, or incorrectly dating the return envelope, 'render[s] a ballot invalid” under Pennsylvania law,' the ruling continues.
The RNC is declaring a victory for election integrity.
“This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide. Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of their mail ballots, and this 3rd Circuit ruling roundly rejects unlawful left-wing attempts to count undated or incorrectly dated mail ballots. Republicans will continue to fight and win for election integrity in courts across the country ahead of the 2024 election," RNC Chairman Michael Whatley released in a statement.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
Good.
What failed for reason?
It is easy to consider that a candidate, being behind by a few thousand votes late on election night, could just flood the mail in collection boxes with phony ballots without dates, and do so to make sure whatever gaps in that candidate’s votes could then exceed the number they’re losing by.
In other words, by having a proper date, you are verifying no cheating went on. By the opposite, allowing undated ballots just makes everyone believe the election was not fair.
Our current governor is the biggest election fraud promoter in the state. Just look at the votes quantity cast in his home county.
Remember the truckload of ballots that came in from New York and they found the truck parked by the Farm Show Building in Harrisburg?
It will be overturned the way things are going.
What they need is a verfied date of when the ballot was received.
It IS unambiguous in the PA Constitution. And the lousy Rat PA SCOTUS knew it all along, but they finally had to rule correctly or it was SCOTUS time to slap ‘em down.
Next?
Get rid of drop boxes; the PA Constitution requires going the]rough the USPS as well, IIRC.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.