The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday to maintain a required date on return envelopes in Pennsylvania, the same mandate that invalidated thousands of votes in the 2022 election, according to One America News.
U.S. Appeals Court Rules Pennsylvania Can Deny Undated Mail-In Ballots https://t.co/k4qYwiPQKS #OAN pic.twitter.com/8PYzdwcZvM
— One America News (@OANN) March 29, 2024
A key swing state, Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes are up for grabs in the upcoming presidential election.
Leftist voting rights advocates said the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2-1 ruling favors Republicans and thousands of ballots could be cast aside in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP and other leftist groups sued to challenge a state requirement to reject mail-in ballots if they are missing a date or the wrong date is written on the envelopes.
A lower court judge ruled late last year that ballots — if received in time — should be counted even if they are missing proper dates on the mail-in-ballots. U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter claimed the envelope date is not crucial in determining whether or not a ballot was received in time or if a voter is qualified.
U.S. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ambro of the court said the lower court relied upon rules of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that do not relate to ballot-casting, such as dates on envelopes, but “is concerned only with the process of determining a voter’s eligibility to cast a ballot.”
Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot rules were also an issue in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats relied on mail-in voting and this helped Biden win the state over Trump by some 80,000 votes.
Over 10,000 ballots were discarded in Pennsylvania in 2022’s midterms. Leftist voting rights groups claimed the votes were not counted because of inconsequential paperwork errors and invoked a specification of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Clinton appointed Ambro said the materiality provision only applies when a state is determining who can legally vote, not how they can vote.
“In other words, its role stops at the door of the voting place,” Ambro wrote in an opinion joined by Biden appointee Judge Cindy Chung.
An Obama appointee, Judge Patty Shwartz, did not agree. She claimed the ruling would allow Pennsylvania to “toss a ballot cast by a qualified voter based upon mistakes on required paperwork immaterial to determining voter qualifications.”
A lawyer at the radical left American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement the organization’s voters’ rights group “are considering all of our options at this time.” One option is an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Legalized cheating is the end goal of Democrat voting rights advocates. Not all Democrat judges are willing to play along.
