Pennsylvanians must be given a chance to vote on Election Day if their mail ballots have been rejected because of a disqualifying mistake, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
“This reinforces the right to vote in Pennsylvania.” The case began in Butler County, which rejected provisional ballots cast by two voters whose mail ballots for the April primary had been rejected earlier for being returned without a secrecy envelope.
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The ACLU and Public Interest Law Center sued the county, arguing it had misinterpreted a section of the state’s Election Code in considering the rejected mailed ballots as “cast.” The groups lost at the county court level, but that decision was overturned by the state’s Commonwealth Court in September.
Republican groups that intervened in the case appealed it to the state Supreme Court.
That means voters who fail to correctly sign or date the return envelope or fail to use a secrecy envelope are entitled to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day at a polling place and have it counted, as long as that ballot wouldn’t be rejected for some other disqualifying issue.
That case is awaiting a decision from the state’s Commonwealth Court, and could be appealed up to the state Supreme Court after that.
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