The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered that any general election ballots mailed in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes must be set aside and not counted by election boards.
“We direct that Pennsylvania’s county boards of elections separate and retain any ballots contained in undated or misdated outer envelopes,” the court said in an order Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee, the Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Pennsylvania Party.
Pennsylvania requires voters to sign and date the outer envelope when they mail in a ballot.
In the deadlocked 3-3 row — a seat on the bench remains vacant after the judge’s death — the court acknowledged it was “tied” on whether failure to count undated or incorrectly dated ballots qualifies as a violation of federal election law. Three judges said they would find a violation of federal law, while three judges said they would not.
The case is the result of a lawsuit filed last month by state and national Republicans that the acting Pennsylvania secretary of state is bypassing the General Assembly by telling county boards to count returned ballots in a timely manner, but without a date.
CNN has reached out to the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States for comment.
The two-page order did not provide details on the justices’ reasoning, saying only that the opinions would be made public later.
“This decision is a huge victory for Pennsylvania voters and the rule of law,” RNC Chairwoman Rona McDaniel said in a statement. “Republicans went to court, and now Democrats and all counties must follow the law: this is a milestone in Republicans’ ongoing efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in Pennsylvania and nationally.”
Pennsylvania does not begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day.
