PA Supreme Court: Unsigned Mail-In Ballots May NOT Be Counted

HARRISBURG – Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) and House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) issued the following statement on the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Ball v. Chapman, which ordered counties to refrain from counting undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, and that those ballots should be segregated and retained:

“Dates matter, and the dating of important documents has been a critical tool in officiating the legality of documents for centuries. We thank the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for re-confirming what we have said all along: Pennsylvania’s election law is undeniably clear that mail-in ballots and absentee ballots must be correctly dated to be valid.

“We are also glad to see the Pennsylvania Supreme Court order that incorrectly dated or undated mail-in ballots and absentee ballots should be segregated, something we requested the Pennsylvania Department of State advise counties to do weeks ago.

 “Today’s decision is not only a win for the plain language of Pennsylvania law, but also for upholding the security and integrity of our elections.”