Federal appeals court reverses Erie ruling, bans counting of undated Pa. mail-in ballots

A ruling on mail-in ballots that originated in federal court in Erie is on a potential path to the U.S. Supreme Court following a precedent-setting ruling from a Philadelphia-based federal appeals court.

A final decision will affect how mail-in ballots are counted in Pennsylvania, which is viewed as a critical swing state in the 2024 presidential race.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision on Wednesday that election officials in Pennsylvania are barred from counting mail-in ballots that arrive on time but that have inaccurate dates or no dates handwritten on their exterior envelopes.

The decision reversed a first-of-its-kind ruling on Nov. 21 from U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, who is based in U.S. District Court in Erie.

The 2-1 decision sided with the Republican National Committee, which appealed Baxter's ruling to the 3rd Circuit.

The decision went against six public interest groups that are the plaintiffs, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP. They sued before Baxter to set aside the Pennsylvania law over dates on mail-in ballots.

The majority opinion remanded the case to Baxter for further review based on the majority's findings. The plaintiffs could ask the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case. They could also appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ruling focuses on 'Materiality Provision' of federal civil rights law

In the decision that was overturned, Baxter said Pennsylvania mail-in ballots without accurate dates handwritten on their exterior envelopes must still be counted if they are received in time.

Excluding those ballots would violate the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Baxter ruled in her 77-page decision. She said the provision protects "a citizen's right to vote by forbidding a state actor from disqualifying a voter because of their failure to provide or error in providing some unnecessary information on a voting application or ballot."

Baxter found that elections officials do not use the date on the outer envelope to determine whether to count a vote. Baxter noted that county election officials know when a mail-in ballot is returned by scanning a barcode on the return envelope.

The majority of the 3rd Circuit panel acknowledged the date requirement "serves little apparent purpose." But the majority said the Materiality Provision does not override the Pennsylvania law that "undated or misdated ballots are invalid."

"We hold that the Materiality Provision only applies when the state is determining who may vote," Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Judge Thomas Ambro said in the 43-page majority opinion. "In other words, its role stops at the door of the voting place. The Provision does not apply to rules, like the date requirement, that govern how a qualified voter must cast his ballot for it to be counted."

Dissenting judge says majority opinion unfairly penalizes voters

U.S. Circuit Judge Cindy Chung joined the majority. U.S. Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz dissented.

In a 40-page opinion, Shwartz said the "Materiality Provision, in my view, is not limited to that narrow view of documents" used to register to vote.

Shwartz said her interpretation of the law matched Baxter's, and that "the Materiality Provision covers mistakes on paperwork submitted both with a voter's initial registration to vote and those required to ensure that the voter's vote is counted."

Shwartz advised Pennsylvania voters to be thorough in filling out mail-in ballots. She said in her dissent that more than 1 million Pennsylvania voters used mail-in ballots in the November 2022 election, and that of those ballots, "10,000 timely-received ballots were not counted because they did not comply with the State law requirement" for dates.

"Today’s ruling is a clear reminder that all voters must carefully review and comply with every instruction and requirement imposed upon them," Shwartz said. "If they do not, they risk having their otherwise valid votes discounted based on even the most inconsequential mistake."

ACLU, RNC offer views on decision as further appeals possible

The ACLU criticized the majority ruling.

"If this ruling stands, thousands of Pennsylvania voters could lose their vote over a meaningless paperwork error," Mike Lee, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "The ballots in question in this case come from voters who are eligible and who met the submission deadline.

"In passing the Civil Rights Act, Congress put a guardrail in place to be sure that states don’t erect unnecessary barriers that disenfranchise voters. It’s unfortunate that the court failed to recognize that principle. Voters lose as a result of this ruling."

The Republican National Committee welcomed the decision.

"This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide," the chairman of the RNC, Michael Whatley, said in a statement.

"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.”

Contact Ed Palattella at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Federal appeals reverses Erie ruling, nixes undated PA mail-in ballots