{"id":1720961,"date":"2022-11-02T07:48:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T11:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1720961"},"modified":"2022-11-02T07:48:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T11:48:50","slug":"pa-supreme-court-deals-huge-election-victory-undated-mail-in-ballots-cannot-be-counted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pa-supreme-court-deals-huge-election-victory-undated-mail-in-ballots-cannot-be-counted\/","title":{"rendered":"PA Supreme Court Deals Huge Election Victory: Undated Mail-In Ballots Cannot Be Counted"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpa-supreme-court-deals-huge-election-victory-undated-mail-in-ballots-cannot-be-counted%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1720961&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Pennsylvania Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Supreme\/out\/J-85-2022pco%20-%20105327594202667240.pdf?cb=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ruled<\/a> on Tuesday that undated mail-in and absentee ballots cannot be counted \u2014 a major win for election integrity just a week before Election Day of the 2022 midterms. <\/p>\n<p>The ruling directs Pennsylvania county boards of elections to \u201csegregate and preserve any ballots contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes\u201d for the Nov. 8 general election but to refrain from counting them. <\/p>\n<p>This decision directly contradicts the Keystone State\u2019s Democrat acting secretary of the commonwealth, Leigh Chapman, who <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/14\/the-same-day-scotus-squashes-pas-illegal-ballots-secretary-of-state-tells-counties-to-break-the-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told counties<\/a> to ignore a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively said undated mail-in ballots should not be counted. The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania GOP immediately announced a lawsuit in response. <\/p>\n<p>The RNC and the state GOP argued that Chapman\u2019s directive violated state law, as Pennsylvania requires voters to properly date their ballots. In fact, mail-in ballots for this election cycle <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/14\/the-same-day-scotus-squashes-pas-illegal-ballots-secretary-of-state-tells-counties-to-break-the-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">even contain wording<\/a> that reads \u201ctoday\u2019s date required\u201d and clear instructions for voters to \u201csign and date\u201d their ballots. Under Chapman\u2019s instructions, some of Pennsylvania\u2019s 67 counties would have followed her lead while others would have followed state law and clear ballot instructions, tainting the election with inconsistencies and chaos. The RNC asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court at least to order counties to segregate undated or incorrectly dated ballots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing an RNC, NRCC, and PAGOP lawsuit, Pennsylvania\u2019s Supreme Court has made clear that incorrectly dated and undated mail ballots can not be counted,\u201d RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said. \u201cRepublicans went to court, and now Democrats and all counties have to follow the law: this is a milestone in Republicans\u2019 ongoing efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in Pennsylvania and nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This legal victory by the RNC follows two other recent wins: <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/24\/judge-strikes-down-michigan-secretary-of-states-restrictions-on-poll-challengers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one<\/a> against Michigan\u2019s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for restricting the rights of poll challengers and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/14\/gop-wins-legal-challenge-against-restrictions-on-north-carolina-poll-watchers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">another<\/a> against the North Carolina State Board of Elections for restricting poll watchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElection integrity begins by following the law, and this decision is a big win for Pennsylvanians,\u201d Jason Snead, the executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said in a statement. \u201cPennsylvania law clearly requires that every mail ballot be dated and signed. That simple, straightforward rule helps to stop late and illegal voting without burdening anyone\u2019s right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. Her writing has been featured in the New York Post, National Review, and Townhall. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that undated mail-in and absentee ballots cannot be counted \u2014 just a week before the 2022 midterms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1130,"featured_media":1720964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1720961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1720961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1720964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1720961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1720961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1720961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}