Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders counties to stop counting illegal ballots

In a ruling issued Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered election officials in all counties not to include mail-in ballots with incorrect or missing dates in their results.

The court ruled that the affected ballots "shall not be counted for purposes of the election" held last November 5. This decision responds to a request filed by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, after several counties decided to count ballots with incorrect or missing dates, ignoring an earlier order from the high court prohibiting this practice.

GOP pushback

The ruling comes after the RNC and David McCormick, declared winner of the Senate race in Pennsylvania, filed lawsuits against counties that counted irregular votes.

Michael Whatley, chairman of the RNC, celebrated the verdict in a post on social networking site X, stressing that election officials in counties such as Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia "have no choice" but to reject illegal ballots. "Following our latest RNC lawsuit, today the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yet again that undated ballots CANNOT BE COUNTED. No more excuses (...) We will hold them to it," he said.

Controversy over mail-in ballot date requirement

The dispute over "undated" ballots has been ongoing since Pennsylvania introduced vote-by-mail voting in 2020. State law requires voters to handwrite a date on the outer envelope, but some counties have included such ballots in official recounts, disregarding previous high court rulings.

Automatic recount and disputed results

The ruling comes amid an automatic recount ordered for the close Senate race between Republican David McCormick and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. McCormick leads by more than 17,000 votes, according to the latest unofficial results from the Pennsylvania Department of State. Final recount results are expected Nov. 27.