The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that Pennsylvania election officials cannot disqualify mail-in ballots because of missing or incorrect dates on return envelopes, affirming a district court decision that found the rule unconstitutional.
The panel concluded that discarding ballots for such errors imposes an undue burden on the right to vote when voters are given no notice or opportunity to correct them.
The case followed Pennsylvania’s 2022 general election, when more than 10,000 ballots were rejected over dating mistakes. After ballot envelopes were redesigned, that number fell in 2024 but still totaled about 4,500 ballots, or 0.064 percent of all votes cast. Voter Bette Eakin, along with Democratic organizations, challenged the state rule requiring voters to handwrite the date on the return envelope, arguing that ballots should not be thrown out over such errors because the mandate conflicted with constitutional protections and federal law.
The court ruled that the federal Materiality Provision did not apply, holding that Pennsylvania’s dating requirement is part of the process of casting a ballot rather than a non-material clerical step. The judges concluded the rule could not stand, noting that while writing a date is a simple act, the consequence of rejecting ballots for mistakes or omissions is severe, resulting in the loss of thousands of otherwise valid votes.
The ruling permits the state to keep a space for voters to write a date on return envelopes, but prohibits election boards from discarding ballots solely because of a mistake or omission in that field.
