Pennsylvania Date Rule for Mail Ballots Is Unconstitutional (1)

Pennsylvania’s requirement that mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates be discarded is unconstitutional, the Third Circuit said Tuesday.

“Weighing the burden that practice imposes on Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to vote against the State’s interest in the practice, the balance of the scales leads us to hold that it does not comply with our Constitution,” said Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith in an opinion for the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, affirming the lower court’s ruling.

Although the state’s alleged interest in preventing voter fraud is legitimate, “we are simply unable to discern any connection between dating ...