A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Pennsylvania cannot throw out mail-in ballots that are incorrectly dated, a decision that could reshape how elections are decided in one of the nation’s most closely watched battleground states.
The unanimous decision from the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the state’s dating requirement unconstitutional, saying it needlessly disenfranchised voters without serving a meaningful purpose in election security. To be overturned, the ruling would have to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The issue has been before the courts several times since the state legislature passed Act 77 in 2019, permitting no-excuse mail-in voting.
After Tuesday’s ruling, the Pennsylvania Republican Party released this statement: “The RNC and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania are currently evaluating next steps. Pennsylvania law is clear: if you vote by mail, you must sign and date your return envelope.
“The liberal groups fighting to overturn this basic protection – which was passed into law by the state’s legislature – are essentially fighting to count illegal ballots. That’s unacceptable,” the GOP said.
“It’s disappointing that the court ignored current law,” said Pat Poprik, chair of the Bucks County Republicans. “The proper way to change the law is through the legislative process, not through judicial activism.”
But Democrats and their allies celebrated the ruling.
“Today’s decision by the court is a victory for free and fair elections, protecting Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to participate in our democracy,” said Julie Merz of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Devan Barber of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in a joint statement. “Democrats are united in the fight to ensure every legal vote is counted … and will not let these Republican attacks go unanswered.”
The American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs on behalf of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Common Cause Pennsylvania, and other advocacy groups. They argued that rejecting ballots over inconsequential errors disproportionately harmed minority and elderly voters.
“This decision confirms that it is unconstitutional to disqualify an otherwise valid mail-in ballot that arrives on time to the election office just because the voter forgot a meaningless handwritten date, or wrote the incorrect date, on the return envelope,” Stephen Loney, senior supervising attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said Tuesday.
“We will work to combat any further challenges to this ruling so that this November, and in all future elections, voters won’t be disenfranchised for these insignificant paperwork errors.”
The ruling comes as Republican views of mail-in ballots are changing. After Democrats outperformed the GOP in 2020, the Republican Party spent millions convincing its voters to use the ballots. The Republican National Committee (RNC), with co-chair Lara Trump, even ran a “Bank Your Vote” program. That initiative encouraged Republicans to vote early, whether in person or by mail, to avoid handing Democrats an advantage.
As a result, according to The New York Times’ data analysis, “Republicans made almost universal gains in mail voting during the 2024 election, eroding a key Democratic advantage in nearly every state that tracks party registration.”
The same trend was at play in Pennsylvania, where GOP voters accounted for 32 percent of mail ballots in 2024, when Trump won the state, an increase from the 25 percent he won in 2020.
Despite his success, Trump continues to rail against mail-in voting.
“We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt,” he posted on social media earlier this month.