Baxter v. Philadelphia County Board of Elections

This case is one of several successive lawsuits challenging the requirement that Pennsylvania voters who vote by mail ballot must write the date on the outer mail ballot return envelope and will have their mail ballots set aside and left unopened if they either omit or write an "incorrect" date. This requirement serves no purpose other than to disenfranchise voters. It plays no role in establishing that a ballot was returned to the board of elections before the receipt deadline, or that the voter was eligible, and it isn't used to prevent fraud.

On September 17, 2024, the Philadelphia Board of Elections administered a special election for open seats in State House Districts 195 and 201. Plaintiffs, each an eligible and registered voter, submitted mail ballots before the Election Day deadline, but didn't include a handwritten date on the outer return envelope. As a result, they -- along with 67 other voters -- were disenfranchised, and their votes went uncounted.

ACLU joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center, and Arnold & Porter to represent the voters. On September 25, 2024, the Court of Common Pleas granted Plaintiffs' petition, ruling that the Board's decision to disqualify their mail ballots because of two envelope-dating errors violated their right to vote under the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Board and the Republican Party, intervening as defendant, appealed to the Commonwealth Court.

On October 30, the Commonwealth Court ruled that the lower court correctly ordered the Philadelphia County Board to count 69 undated or incorrectly dated absentee and mail-in ballots. Leaving these uncounted, the Court explained would violate the free and equal elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Update: On November 1, the PA Supreme Court issued an order blocking the Commonwealth Court's decisions, meaning that the Philadelphia County Board of Elections will NOT count undated and misdated mail-in ballots in the November 2024 general election.