The US Supreme court sided with a republican candidate who lost his race for a judgeship in Pennsylvania.
In the decision, the Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots that were not dated in the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas should have never been counted.
The appeal was made by David Ritter who “lost” the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas election by just five votes after 257 mail-in ballots without dates were counted.
Despite vacating a lower court’s ruling, the win will not put Ritter back in office.
However, the Supreme Court ruling will instead be used as a precedent in future election integrity cases.
U.S. Supreme Court reverses Pennsylvania mail voting law decision
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 11, 2022
Huge Supreme Court election integrity ruling!https://t.co/p3fgznHqQA
— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) October 11, 2022
Reuters had these details to report:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a judgeship in Pennsylvania and threw out a lower court’s ruling that had allowed the counting of mail-in ballots in the race that he had sought to exclude because voters neglected to write the date on them.
The justices vacated the ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as requested by David Ritter, who lost his 2021 bid for a spot on the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas to a Democratic rival by five votes after 257 absentee ballots without date notations were counted.
The high court’s action means that the 3rd Circuit ruling cannot be used as a precedent in the three states covered by this regional federal appellate court – Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware – to allow the counting of ballots with minor flaws such as the voter failing to fill in the date. Vacating the ruling does not change Ritter’s loss in his race.
The 3rd Circuit had ruled that invalidating the undated ballots would violate a provision of a landmark 1964 federal law called the Civil Rights Act aimed at ensuring that minor ballot errors do not deny someone the right to vote.
Under Pennsylvania law, voters are required to write the date on the outer envelope of a mail-in ballot. The 3rd Circuit found that the requirement is “immaterial” to determining their qualifications as voters.
In his appeal, Ritter argued that mail-in ballot rules improve election administration and deter fraud.
U.S. Supreme Court backs Republican in Pennsylvania ballots case https://t.co/ADDVFjpHID pic.twitter.com/SN0AbzKyHm
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 11, 2022
The conservative Supreme Court just undid a key ruling for counting undated Pennsylvania mail ballots.https://t.co/YAU1RYiXhh
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 11, 2022
CBS had more on the story:
The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a lower appeals court decision Tuesday regarding how rules for mail-in ballots had been applied in a Pennsylvania election, adding an element of uncertainty about voting procedures four weeks ahead of the state’s high-stakes elections for governor and U.S. Senate.
The justices vacated a decision in May by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had said mail-in ballots without a required date on the return envelope had to be counted in a 2021 Pennsylvania judge race.
Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman said every county is still expected to include those ballots in their official returns for the Nov. 8 election, consistent with the Department of State’s guidance.
“That guidance followed the most recent ruling of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court holding that both Pennsylvania and federal law prohibit excluding legal votes because the voter omitted an irrelevant date on the ballot return envelope,” Chapman said in a statement.
“Today’s order from the U.S. Supreme Court vacating the Third Circuit’s decision on mootness grounds was not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision of Commonwealth Court in any way. It provides no justification for counties to exclude ballots based on a minor omission, and we expect that counties will continue to comply with their obligation to count all legal votes.”
Supreme Court upends Pennsylvania precedent permitting undated mail-in ballotshttps://t.co/F005LVvsL3 pic.twitter.com/14rvzwbCmq
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) October 12, 2022
To make things right Ritter needs to replace his Democrat opponent asap!
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