(Harrisburg, Pa.) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today vacated a ruling in favor of the Black Political Empowerment Project and other nonpartisan community organizations in their case seeking to end the disqualification of mail in ballots based on a common trivial error on the external envelopes.
The groups, represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania, ACLU Voting Rights Project, Public Interest Law Center, and the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, argued that to disqualify ballots with a missing or incorrect handwritten date on the envelope violated citizens’ fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that the lower court that issued the pro-voter ruling lacked jurisdiction, leaving open the possibility of further action in the state courts.
ACLU of Pa. Senior Supervising Attorney Steve Loney made the following statement:
“Today’s procedural ruling is a setback for Pennsylvania voters, but we will keep fighting for them. These eligible voters who got their ballots in on time should have their votes counted and voices heard. The fundamental right to vote is among the most precious rights we enjoy as Pennsylvanians, and it should take more than a trivial paperwork error to take it away.”
The following can be attributed to Mimi McKenzie, legal director of the Public Interest Law Center:
“Thousands of voters are at risk of having their ballots rejected in November for making a meaningless mistake. We will keep fighting to keep that from happening. In the meantime, it’s more important than ever for every voter to carefully read and follow the instructions for submitting a mail-in ballot to reduce the number of ballots being rejected for trivial paperwork errors.”
ACLU Voting Rights Project Senior Staff Attorney Ari Savitzky made the following statement:
“This procedural ruling is a deeply unfortunate and unnecessary setback for voters, whose fundamental right to vote is at stake. It is time to end once and for all the practice of disenfranchising thousands of eligible voters based on a totally meaningless paperwork mistake. We will not stop fighting to make sure that all votes are counted.”
A statewide coalition of ten nonpartisan community organizations sued Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt and election officials in Philadelphia and Allegheny County in state court, demanding an end to the disqualification of mail-in ballots for inconsequential date errors on the declaration envelope. The petitioners argued that this practice violates the fundamental right to vote in free and equal elections guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Constitution.
More information about this case, including a copy of today’s ruling, is available at aclupa.org/BPEP.
