{"id":2336995,"date":"2024-09-05T04:43:01","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T08:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-appeals-pa-court-decision-that-scrapped-ballot-dating-rule\/"},"modified":"2024-09-05T04:49:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T08:49:08","slug":"rnc-appeals-pa-court-decision-that-scrapped-ballot-dating-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-appeals-pa-court-decision-that-scrapped-ballot-dating-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"RNC Appeals PA Court Decision That Scrapped Ballot Dating Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/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%2Frnc-appeals-pa-court-decision-that-scrapped-ballot-dating-rule%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=2336995&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 Republican National Committee (RNC) is\u200b appealing to the\u200d Pennsylvania\u200d Supreme Court after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aclu-targets-loudoun-county-teachers-speech-wants-them-forced-to-use-gender-affirming-pronouns\/\" title=\"ACLU Targets Loudoun County Teachers\u2019 Speech, Wants Them Forced To Use \u2018Gender-Affirming\u2019 Pronouns\">lower court ruled<\/a> \u2062that the \u200dstrict enforcement of a law requiring mail-in ballots to be properly dated for them\u200b to be\u2064 counted is unconstitutional.\u200b The Commonwealth Court&#8217;s decision, which claimed that enforcing the date requirement could\u2063 deny voters \u2064their franchise, \u2064has been described by RNC officials as &#8220;absurd&#8221; and &#8220;unprecedented.&#8221; They \u200dargue that most voters are capable of writing the date on ballot\u200c envelopes and \u200bthat the\u2063 decision undermines public \u2063confidence in the electoral \u2063process.<\/p>\n<p>The court&#8217;s ruling, which the RNC claims lacks jurisdiction, means that improperly dated ballots\u2063 could \u200cstill\u2062 be counted\u2063 in the upcoming election, potentially impacting\u2063 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-more-votes-than-voters-in-key-swing-states\/\" title=\"Trump: More Votes Than Voters in Key Swing States\">key swing state<\/a>. The RNC\u2062 contends that the \u200clower court\u200b overstepped its authority, as it did not include essential county\u200b boards\u200d responsible for enforcing the \u2062requirement as defendants in the case, thereby complicating the matter. This\u2063 case raises concerns about legislative authority over election laws and the \u2062procedures for counting mail-in votes in Pennsylvania.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After a court in Pennsylvania scrapped enforcement of a law requiring that mail-in ballots be properly dated in order to be counted, the Republican National Committee is asking the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/9-key-points-from-trump-campaign-press-conference-on-challenges-to-election-results\/\" title=\"9 Key Points from Trump Campaign Press Conference on Challenges to Election Results\">state supreme court<\/a> to weigh in.<\/p>\n<p>The RNC, joined by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, intervened in the case brought by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-left-thinks-congress-is-theirs-but-moderates-keep-dealing-them-setbacks\/\" title=\"The Left Thinks Congress Is Theirs, But Moderates Keep Dealing Them Setbacks\">multiple left-wing groups<\/a> (represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania), while the counsel of Secretary of State Al Schmidt (a Republican official named as defendant in the suit) filed a brief in support of the petitioners.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have reached a point of true absurdity in election law litigation. A court that does not even have jurisdiction over this matter somehow concluded that asking people to write down a date on the envelope in which they transmit their mail-in ballots imposes a &lsquo;severe burden&rsquo; on their ability to vote,&rdquo; Derek Lyons, president and CEO of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections and former counselor to President Donald Trump, told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s be clear: Even second-graders know how to write the date on their schoolwork, so every adult voter can do likewise on their ballot envelope with no trouble whatsoever. Next, we will find out that asking people to mark their own ballots is also a constitutional violation. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must act quickly to reverse this decision and end this madness.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/03\/pennsylvania-court-says-improperly-dated-mail-ballots-must-be-counted-in-untethered-and-unprecedented-ruling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decided<\/a> that the &ldquo;strict enforcement&rdquo; of part of a state law requiring election officials to reject mail-in ballots that are improperly dated or undated was &ldquo;unconstitutional.&rdquo; The lower court majority further argued that the strict enforcement of the date requirement could deny voters franchise.<\/p>\n<p>To do so, the court majority argued it had original jurisdiction over the matter, applied strict scrutiny (a presumption that the law is invalid unless the government can prove a compelling state interest) to find an outcome, and bypassed the authority of the general assembly to determine election law in a move both the RNC and dissenting Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia A. McCullough described as &ldquo;unprecedented.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>If the lower court&rsquo;s decision is upheld, thousands of improperly dated ballots could be counted in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Signing and dating important documents as part of everyday life &mdash; and dating a mail-ballot declaration is a usual burden of voting, not an effective &lsquo;denial&rsquo; of &lsquo;the franchise,&rsquo;&rdquo; the RNC stated, pointing out that even the petitioners acknowledge that the vast majority of mail-in voters are able to comply with the requirement. &ldquo;A rule that is inapplicable to most voters and complied with by more than 99% of the remainder cannot be &lsquo;so difficult&rsquo; as to deny &lsquo;the franchise.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Commonwealth Court majority&rsquo;s decision is unprecedented, rests on multiple reversible errors, and threatens to unleash chaos, uncertainty, and an erosion of public confidence in the imminent 2024 general election,&rdquo; the RNC&rsquo;s appeal reads, noting that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court already upheld the date requirement in a different challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Lyons referred to several of the core arguments presented by the RNC, including that the Commonwealth Court lacked original jurisdiction because the ACLU and the rest of the petitioners named Schmidt as the only defendant in the case. They did so despite the fact that his office &ldquo;lacks any authority to enforce the date requirement,&rdquo; and is therefore not an &ldquo;indispensable party to the <em>only<\/em> form of relief Petitioners seek: an order enjoining &lsquo;enforcement&rsquo; of the date requirement.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The ACLU meanwhile did not include as defendants 65 county boards that are responsible for enforcing the date requirement, the appeal states. Those two realities, the RNC argues, require the state supreme court to throw out the case without even addressing the issues brought by challenging the law itself.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In its eagerness to address the merits, the majority dashed past procedural defects barring it from wading into this dispute in the first place,&rdquo; the appeal states.<\/p>\n<p>While the lower court decided to apply strict scrutiny to a challenge involving the Pennsylvania Constitution&rsquo;s Free and Equal Elections Clause, the RNC argued that the opinion of the lower court itself actually violated that clause because, in not including 65 of 67 counties in the lawsuit, the decision only blocks Philadelphia and Allegheny counties from &ldquo;strictly enforcing&rdquo; the date requirement.<\/p>\n<p>The order, the appeal argues, has &ldquo;no effect on the other 65 county boards, which remain bound to enforce the &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; requirement. The Order thus does not &lsquo;treat[]&rsquo; Pennsylvania voters &lsquo;alike&rsquo; or &lsquo;the same way under similar circumstances,&rsquo;&rdquo; in violation of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Constitution and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-attorney-phil-kline-and-it-expert-j-r-carlson-presser-wednesday-exposing-mark-zuckerbergs-dark-money-cash-for-chaos\/\" title=\"BREAKING: Attorney Phil Kline and IT Expert J.R. Carlson Presser Wednesday Exposing Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Dark Money Cash for Chaos\">state election law<\/a>. &ldquo;Nor could strict scrutiny apply because, if it did, the Clause would imperil <em>every<\/em> &lsquo;reasonable, non-discriminatory restriction[]&rsquo; the General Assembly has enacted &lsquo;to ensure honest and fair elections&rsquo; in Pennsylvania,&rdquo; the appeal added.<\/p>\n<p>The RNC argued that the lower court&rsquo;s decision preempted the authority of the state legislature to control election law, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which wrote, &ldquo;While the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates that elections be &lsquo;free and equal,&rsquo; it leaves the task of effectuating that mandate to the Legislature.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It therefore resides with the General Assembly to determine &lsquo;the procedures for casting and counting a vote by mail&rsquo; and whether &lsquo;minor errors&rsquo; in compliance require &lsquo;reject[ing]&rsquo; ballots,&rdquo; the appeal states.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal comes after Schmidt&rsquo;s office issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PAStateDept\/status\/1829594491973513668\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a> applauding the lower court&rsquo;s ruling as a &ldquo;victory for the fundamental right to vote.&rdquo; Moreover, Schmidt&rsquo;s own counsel filed a brief in support of the petitioners challenging the requirement, indicating that the officials tasked with defending the proper dating requirement had no interest in doing so.<\/p>\n<p>In an amicus brief filed in support of the RNC&rsquo;s appeal, Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew slammed Schmidt, saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&ldquo;From the start, the Election Code never stood a chance. Petitioners, determined to obtain relief this Court has repeatedly denied, devised a scheme that would finally undo statutory requirements that they have long opposed. Their scheme was smart (if not novel): a lawsuit against three parties who find the statutory requirements inconvenient or undesirable &mdash; i.e., Al Schmidt, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth (Secretary), and the Allegheny and Philadelphia County Boards of Elections (BOEs). With no other governmental entity or elected official to oppose their views, or defend the constitutionality of a statute duly enacted by the political branches, the Commonwealth Court was overwhelmed with a chorus parroting the same canard: requiring voters to date their sworn declarations is so burdensome as to be unconstitutional.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Neither Schmidt&rsquo;s office nor the ACLU of Pennsylvania responded to a request for comment from The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Federalist Elections Correspondent Beth Brelje contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a Pennsylvania court&#8217;s decision to eliminate the enforcement of a law mandating that mail-in ballots be correctly dated for them to be counted, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is requesting that the state supreme court get involved. The RNC, along with the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, has intervened in a lawsuit initiated by several left-leaning organizations represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Al Schmidt&#8217;s legal counsel (a Republican named as a defendant in this case) submitted a brief supporting the petitioners.<\/p>\n<p>Derek Lyons, president and CEO of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections and former advisor to President Donald Trump, expressed his frustration with what he sees as absurdity in election law litigation. He criticized the court for ruling that requiring voters to date their mail-in ballot envelopes constitutes an unreasonable burden on their voting rights. He argued that even young children can write dates on their schoolwork, suggesting that adult voters should have no difficulty doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, Pennsylvania&#8217;s Commonwealth Court ruled that strictly enforcing part of state law\u2014which requires election officials to reject improperly dated or undated mail-in ballots\u2014was unconstitutional. The majority opinion from this lower court claimed such strict enforcement could disenfranchise voters.<\/p>\n<p>The court asserted it had original jurisdiction over this issue and applied strict scrutiny\u2014a legal standard requiring compelling justification from the government\u2014to reach its conclusion while bypassing legislative authority over election laws. This move was described as &#8220;unprecedented&#8221; by both RNC representatives and dissenting Judge Patricia A. McCullough.<\/p>\n<p>If upheld, this ruling could allow thousands of improperly dated ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania during an important upcoming election cycle. The RNC contended that signing and dating documents is part of everyday life; thus dating a mail-ballot declaration should not be seen as an undue burden on voting rights since most mail-in voters comply with this requirement without issue.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal filed by the RNC criticized the Commonwealth Court\u2019s decision for being unprecedented and fraught with reversible errors which could lead to chaos and diminish public trust ahead of the 2024 general elections. They noted previous rulings where date requirements were upheld by higher courts.<\/p>\n<p>Lyons highlighted key arguments made by the RNC regarding jurisdictional issues within Commonwealth Court proceedings\u2014specifically pointing out how only one defendant was named despite multiple county boards being responsible for enforcing these requirements\u2014and suggested these factors warranted dismissal without addressing substantive legal challenges against existing laws.<\/p>\n<p>In its eagerness to address merits rather than procedural flaws barring intervention into such disputes initially, Lyons argued that Commonwealth Court\u2019s application of strict scrutiny violated constitutional principles because it failed to include all relevant counties affected by its ruling.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal also stated that allowing such decisions undermines legislative authority over electoral processes per both U.S. Constitution standards and prior rulings from Pennsylvania\u2019s Supreme Court affirming legislative control over voting procedures\u2014including whether minor compliance errors necessitate ballot rejection.<\/p>\n<p>Schmidt\u2019s office previously praised lower court findings as victories for voter rights but later indicated through counsel support towards petitioners challenging date requirements\u2014a sign officials defending those regulations lacked interest in upholding them effectively.<\/p>\n<p>Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew criticized Schmidt&#8217;s actions stating they facilitated efforts aimed at dismantling statutory obligations long opposed by certain groups through strategic lawsuits targeting parties unwilling or unable to defend established laws adequately.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Schmidt\u2019s office nor ACLU representatives responded when approached for comments regarding these developments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2336996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2048px-Pennsylvania_Judicial_Center.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7420,40147,33739,40011,6915],"class_list":["post-2336995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-appeals","tag-ballot-dating-rule","tag-election-law","tag-pa-court","tag-rnc"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2048px-Pennsylvania_Judicial_Center.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336995","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\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2336996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}