A ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday is being praised by conservatives working to safeguard election integrity.
The court stopped an effort to allow mail-in ballots without a handwritten date to be counted in the 2024 presidential election, which culminates on Tuesday, Fox News reported on Saturday.
“The ruling overturns a decision from a Commonwealth Court finding that the state law requiring a handwritten date was unconstitutional,” the outlet said. “The Pennsylvania GOP appealed that ruling to the state supreme court, and now undated mail-in ballots will not be counted in the upcoming election.”
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court usually votes 3-2 in favor of liberal Democrat arguments, matching the affiliations of that court’s justices,” said Secretary Ken Blackwell, chairman of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), in an exclusive reaction for Breitbart News. “This time Republicans got a good call from the referee on their opponents’ home field, so this is a clear win for election integrity in a pivotal state.”
The news comes just after Rob Bresnahan, Republican candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, said Republicans in his state are seeing a higher percentage of low-propensity voters come out to vote than Democrats are, Breitbart News reported on Friday.
“I think this is the fifth time we’ve had to fight for this,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Co-Chair Lara Trump said on Friday about to the supreme court’s order.
“Dates on the mail-in ballots. That is a requirement that is an imperative safeguard for people to feel really good about sending their ballots in. You put a date on it, we have the ability to check it and then when it’s sent in they know the date that it’s supposed to be. The Democrats have fought against this,” she added:
In his statement regarding the court’s decision, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said, “This is another big win for election integrity and Pennsylvania voters.”
“For the fifth time, we have successfully defended the state’s dated ballot requirement,” he continued. “We are committed to protecting critical ballot safeguards to ensure every ballot is cast and counted properly and will continue to fight across Pennsylvania to Protect the Vote.”
Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote in his concurring statement:
“This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election.” We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago. Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds. Today’s order, which I join, rights the ship. And it sends a loud message to all courts in this Commonwealth: in declaring we would not countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election, we said what we meant and meant what we said.
It is important to note that a recent Quinnipiac survey found former President Donald Trump had a two-point lead in a hypothetical two-way race with Vice President Kamala Harris (D) in Pennsylvania, a seven-point swing since September 16, per Breitbart News.
The case is: Baxter v. Philadelphia Board of Elections, No. 76 EM 2024 in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
