A Mail-Vote Time Bomb in Pennsylvania

Divided government has prevented Pennsylvania from substantively updating its voting laws since the election mess of 2020, and it will spin the roulette wheel again in November. Imagine if control of the Senate comes down to John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz, with a judge asked to decide whether to count undated mail ballots.

Last week the Supreme Court cleared the decks for that possibility. The story begins with a Pennsylvania judicial election from 2021. Republican David Ritter led by 71 ballots, but there were 257 mail ballots on which voters did not hand-write a date. The Pennsylvania judiciary has held that dating is mandatory, because the law tells voters to “fill out, date and sign.”