Fetterman, Democrats Sue Over Pennsylvania Undated-Ballots Rule in Echo of 2020 Battle

Erik Larson
·2 min read
10

(Bloomberg) -- National Democratic groups filed a federal lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s plan to disregard mail-in ballots missing a handwritten date next to the voter’s signature on the security envelope.

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The suit, filed Monday and joined by Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, illustrates how Tuesday’s midterm elections -- and potentially control of Congress -- may be influenced by litigation over mail-in votes in Pennsylvania, as the 2020 presidential election was. Fetterman is running against Republican Mehmet Oz in one of the tightest races that will determine control of the chamber.

Almost 1.2 million mail-in ballots had been returned in Pennsylvania as of Tuesday morning, with 69% cast by Democrats and 21% by Republicans, according to state data.

“The date instruction serves no meaningful purpose and is immaterial to whether a voter is qualified to vote under Pennsylvania law, as has been shown by ample evidentiary records developed through extensive litigation since the 2020 election,” the Democrats said in the complaint.

The press office for Acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit.

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The state’s highest court has already ruled against the Democrats, but a federal court may come to a different conclusion. The new case, in Erie, was assigned to US District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2020 supported the date rule but allowed ballots without the date to be counted anyway, as long as they are received by Election Day, because voters hadn’t been warned of the “harsh consequences” of failing to write it in.

One of the judges in the 2020 case said the state’s general assembly should consider scrapping the rule because it is “inconsistent with protecting the right to vote to insert more impediments to its exercise than considerations of fraud, election security, and voter qualifications require.”

Even so, Pennsylvania’s high court this month ordered all of the state’s county boards to separate and refrain from counting mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates, granting a request from Republicans. The GOP argues the rule is necessary to prevent voter fraud and denies that it violates the federal Civil Rights Act, as Democrats claim.

The groups that sued are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, plus two voters. The defendants are county boards of election.

Pennsylvania voters cast 2.63 million mail-in ballots in 2020, compared with 4.21 million who voted in person.

The case is Eakin v. Adams County Board of Elections, 22-cv-00340, US District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania (Erie).

--With assistance from Mark Niquette.

(Adds ballot tally in third paragraph.)

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