Courts continue to rule on mail-in voting in Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) — Every vote counts, but will it be counted? That's the question in Pennsylvania.

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated a case surrounding undated or misdated ballots. The majority ruled that the legal battle should involve all 67 boards of elections, not just Philadelphia and Allegheny counties.

The Pennsylvania ALCU brought that case.

"It's a purely procedural decision, nothing on the merits, and the decision is it's as if it never was issued," said Marian Schneider with the ACLU Pennsylvania

With just 50 days to Nov. 5, the status quo is that voters need to sign and correctly date the outer envelope of mail-in ballots for their votes to be counted.

"If it is not signed or dated correctly, we will send you the letter with the instructions on how to cure your ballot," said David Voye, the elections division manager for Allegheny County.

In Allegheny County, you'll get a cure letter in the mail along with your ballot.

"We mail the ballot back to the voter," Voye said. "It's unopened. As you know, we cannot open any ballots until 7 a.m. on election morning, with a letter explaining how to cure it and additional envelopes if needed and telling them how to return their ballot prior to the election to be counted."

Fayette, Butler and Beaver counties have procedures for ballot curing. Mercer, Westmoreland, Lawrence and Indiana counties don't have curing procedures.

The Washington County lawsuit is still working its way through the courts. State law says nothing about whether counties must allow voters to correct their ballots, which has resulted in this patchwork across the Commonwealth.

The ACLU has been on the frontlines of this fight since 2020.

"What we have built over the past four years is a record demonstrating that this requirement is really meaningless, and its only purpose and the only result of enforcing it is that voters don't get to vote," Schneider said.

The ACLU is assessing what the next steps will be, as a status conference is planned for Tuesday.

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KDKA-TV Investigative Producer Tory Wegerski contributed to this report.