It seems like an easy process.
Register to vote. Request a mail-in ballot. Receive, complete, sign and return.
Yet, Pennsylvania is headed towards a nasty fight over these ballots between deep-pocketed campaigns in the quest to secure the GOP nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat.
Why, you say? The directions seem simple enough.
Step 1. Read the instructions carefully and mark your ballot. Be sure to complete the front and back of each page.
Step 2. Seal your ballot in the inner secrecy envelope that indicates “official election ballot.” Do not make any marks on the inner secrecy envelope. Your ballot must be enclosed and sealed in the inner secrecy envelope that indicates “official election ballot” or it will not be counted.
Step 3. Seal the inner secrecy envelope in the pre-addresses outer return envelope. Complete, sign and date the voter’s declaration on the outside of the outer return envelope. If you do not sign and date below the declaration on the return envelope your ballot will not be counted.
But what if you do not put a date on the return envelope OR put your birthdate?
Welcome to Pennsylvania politics.
From personal experience, I can affirm that voters make mistakes when filling in the “Date (MM/DD/YYYY)” line.
What should voters have done? Put the date that the ballot was completed and set to return either in person or by mail.
What have voters done? I’ve seen more envelopes than I care to admit with someone’s birthdate. I’ve also seen envelopes with no date at all.
And that’s where the fight begins.
The Pennsylvania Election Code Section 1306-D reads:
(a) General rule.–At any time after receiving an official mail-in ballot, but on or before eight o’clock P.M. the day of the primary or election, the mail-in elector shall, in secret, proceed to mark the ballot only in black lead pencil, indelible pencil or blue, black or blue-black ink, in fountain pen or ball point pen, and then fold the ballot, enclose and securely seal the same in the envelope on which is printed, stamped or endorsed “Official Mail-in Ballot.” This envelope shall then be placed in the second one, on which is printed the form of declaration of the elector, and the address of the elector’s county board of election and the local election district of the elector. The elector shall then fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope. Such envelope shall then be securely sealed and the elector shall send same by mail, postage prepaid, except where franked, or deliver it in person to said county board of election.
You will notice that the Section does state “fill out, date and sign …” It does not indicate what “date” means. Expect this to be challenged by lawyers working on billable hours.
There also does not appear to be a disqualifier in the language should an elector NOT fully complete the envelope. A signature is required during the application process.
You should also know that every election office puts a time stamp on mail when it is received – note: every piece of mail. At least that’s what we did in my county.
So every mail-in ballot will have a date received stamp on the envelope, even if it does not have a completed date by the voter.
Should this be enough to satisfy county boards that the vote should be counted? Will boards disqualify mail-in ballots that are missing one of the “required” elements? Have county boards been consistent with their policy, i.e. did they follow a similar procedure in 2020 and 2021 elections?
As the race appears to be headed toward a recount that must be complete by June 7, expect the legal wrangling to continue.
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10 Responses
Disturbing that McCormick said today “all Republican votes should be counted”. No you carpetbagger….. ALL VOTES SHOULD BE COUNTED.
Massive use of mail in voting would have been a great idea back in 1974. It seems like a real turn backwards to rely on paper, pen and the USPS
The date that matters is the official posted date made by the post office. Years ago, in something unrelated to voting and in my own little universe I put a date on a submission that was a wee bit earlier due to my submission being a tiny bit late. I got nabbed and plead ignorance. My point is that the date the voter writes on it could be the date the NY Jets last won a Super Bowl which is Jan 12, 1969, but the date that really matters is the date stamped by the Post Office not the whimsical voter’s date written down. Disqualifying a vote because the voter didn’t know the day they filled the form out is just a way to exclude voters and nothing else. As for a learned man like Ozzie using idiotic terms like “extreme liberal socialist John Fetterman” and “must show ID at polls” is condescending to any voter with intelligence and makes Fetterman to be Fidel Castro.
In PA it’s actually when the county receives the ballot (must be before 8 pm on election day). Postmarks don’t count.
Seems as though McCormick voters must be as dumb as Dem voters. This isn’t some convoluted process. Who can’t “sign and date” something? Or even wonders if the date line next to a signature means anything other than the date it was signed? If you are too dumb to complete simple instructions to vote, then your vote should not count.
Don’t be ignorant. Among the undated ballots, there will be votes for all candidates, not just McCormick. This is an arbitrary extra hoop to jump through that disenfranchises unnecessarily. Poll tests are illegal. And, as the article notes, many people put their birthdate, a normal part of govt paperwork. The ballots are dated by both the Post Office and the county election board. An additional date added by the voter is unnecessary.
GOP sucks as usual. Re-count of 2 fools facing each other for the right to be beaten in November by a more competent Dem.
Why is there even a space for a date on the envelope. Totally superfluous, and likely deliberately designed to create mistakes.
And voting by mail is the devil!
postmark should suffice