Supreme Court Backs Republicans in Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots Case

“Republicans were not the beneficiaries of this decision. The American voters are the beneficiaries. Any election lacking integrity is a loss for this Country, whether you are a Democrat or Republican. There can be no rational argument against this proposition.” (commenter)

Related:

Courts Side With Red States on Election Law Changes Post-2020

HUGE WIN! Delaware Supreme Court: No-Excuse Mail-In Voting, Same-Day Registration Are Unconstitutional

Wisconsin Supreme Court prohibits ballot drop boxes ahead of April election

Pennsylvania County Sues Dominion Voting Systems for ‘Unauthorized Python Script’ & ‘Foreign IP Address’

Supreme Court Backs Republican in Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots Case

By Jack Phillips, The Epoch Times,  October 12, 2022:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated an appeals court decision that required Pennsylvania to count mail-in ballots even if there is no date on the envelope.

“The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit with instructions to dismiss the case as moot,” wrote Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson (pdf), siding with David Ritter, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a judgeship.

They also threw out a U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that allowed the counting of mail-in ballots in the race that Ritter had sought to remove because voters did not write the date on the ballots. Ritter lost his 2021 bid to serve on the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas after 257 mail-in ballots that didn’t have dates were counted.

Pennsylvania Republican legislators and conservatives filed amicus briefs saying the 3rd Circuit’s ruling threatened the integrity of the 2022 midterm elections.

But the Supreme Court’s action on Tuesday 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.

Previous Ruling

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court denied Ritter’s attempt to block the counting of ballots that lacked dates. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Days before that (pdf), a panel on the 3rd Circuit ordered the counting of the undated ballots.

Alito had written that the lower court’s ruling “could well affect the outcome” of the elections this year as voters go to the polls on Nov. 8 in midterms in which Republicans are seeking to seize control of Congress from the Democrats.

And he cited concerns that an “individual’s vote is not counted because he or she did not follow the rules for casting a ballot,” adding that the appeals court interpretation is “very likely wrong.”

Law

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.

The May ruling by the 3rd Circuit came in a lawsuit by several elderly voters upset that their votes would not be counted for neglecting to write the date on the mail-in ballot envelope, and what they called a “meaningless technicality.” The 3rd Circuit’s rulings also apply to the U.S. Virgin Islands territory.

However, Pennsylvania law stipulates that voters are mandated to write the date on the outer envelope on their mail-in ballot.

Before the Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling, Republican state Sen. David Argall told The Morning Call that “there are likely to be many issues that come up during the November election” and noted other provisions, including the controversial Act 77 overhaul that was enacted in 2019 that made widespread vote-by-mail possible in Pennsylvania.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here

5 1 vote

Article Rating

5 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

D

BarleyEducated

1 year ago

Didn’t discus ban you Pam? Now they’re tied in with this company. 🙁

In any case, thanks for all you do. 🙂

2

k33j88

1 year ago

OK, what took so long?

1

Michael S Rother

1 year ago

If you can not read simple instructions and fill out your mail-in ballot properly, you have forfeited your vote.

0

Walter Sieruk

1 year ago

Tom Wolf well understood that his taking part in that crooked rigged Pa election fraud in November 3ed 2020 fraud in which involved mail in voting farce play its sinister larger schemed National election hoax. Wolf knows a very effective voter cheating ploy and he’s will not give it up.

After all the outcome was that Joe Biden is now sitting in the Oval Office of the White House
masquerading as a real, genuine, US President. The terrible reality is the Biden is a pseudo “president.”

Joe Biden by willingly allowing schemed election fraud/hoax to occur make it appear that he had “won” the national November 3, 2020, national election is totally unconscionable of him and likewise makes him corrupt unethical.

This is because Biden is such a loser that he had to have the help of others in power who are much more intelligent than him to scheme to have a massive election fraud in order to appear to have “won” the election. With the aid of others in power who are much more in than him.

That despicable and unconscionable rigged November election hoax that Biden took part in reveals that a completely wicked corrupt, unethical politician Joe Biden actually is.

1

j Paul

1 year ago

Massive, unsolicited, inverified mail-in ballots made a 800,000 vote lead by Trump disappear in PA.

0