[ad_1]
A person drops off a mail-in ballot at an election ballot return box in Willow Grove, Pa.,
Photo:
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
Divided government has prevented Pennsylvania from substantively updating its voting laws since the election mess of 2020, and it will spin the roulette wheel again in November. Imagine if control of the Senate comes down to
John Fetterman
and Mehmet Oz, with a judge asked to decide whether to count undated mail ballots.
Last week the Supreme Court cleared the decks for that possibility. The story begins with a Pennsylvania judicial election from 2021. Republican David Ritter led by 71 ballots, but there were 257 mail ballots on which voters did not hand-write a date. The Pennsylvania judiciary has held that dating is mandatory, because the law tells voters to “fill out, date and sign.”
Yet the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals held this May that refusing to count those 257 votes would breach the Civil Rights Act. Adding to the general spirit of mayhem was the timing. The Third Circuit rushed out its judgment amid the disputed Republican primary between Mr. Oz and David McCormick, as if the court intentionally sought to upend how the GOP ballots were being counted at that moment.
The Supreme Court declined to stay the Third Circuit, with a dissent by three conservatives. The Third Circuit’s view “is very likely wrong,” Justice
Samuel Alito
wrote. “If left undisturbed, it could well affect the outcome of the fall elections, and it would be far better for us to address that interpretation before, rather than after, it has that effect.”
With the 257 ballots tallied, Mr. Ritter lost by five. His defeat was duly certified. But he sent the High Court a final petition for review anyway, protesting that Pennsylvania “has ordered all counties to count undated ballots in future elections,” while other plaintiffs were now seeking to “invalidate Pennsylvania’s law requiring mail-in ballots to be placed in secrecy envelopes.”
Because Mr. Ritter’s case became moot on its way to the Justices, they wouldn’t get a chance to review the merits. Hence, the petition asked for the Third Circuit’s ruling to be vacated. The Supreme Court agreed, with the docket noting dissents from Justices
Sonia Sotomayor
and
Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Undated mail ballots are back to the status quo ante.
Practically, this merely means that they’ll be litigated afresh if the unfortunate opportunity arises after November. That’s hardly ideal. As of Friday, nearly 1.2 million mail ballots had been requested in Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Elections Project, and Democratic voters accounted for 72%. The state could wind up with hundreds of undated ballots that skew overall for Mr. Fetterman. Maybe Americans should all be saying the election administrator’s prayer: Lord, let somebody win a landslide.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
[ad_2]
Source link
(This article is generated through the syndicated feeds, Financetin doesn’t own any part of this article)
