Election workers handle ballots at the Allegheny County Election Division warehouse in Pittsburgh.
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New PA Project Education Fund v. Schmidt

Voting Rights
Location: Pennsylvania
Court Type: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Status: Ongoing
Last Update: September 25, 2024

What's at Stake

On September 25, 2024, 10 organizations filed a suit in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking the court to stop enforcement of the commonwealth’s requirement that voters include an irrelevant handwritten date on the outer return envelope of their mail ballot packets or else be disenfranchised.

Summary

Represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania, American Civil Liberties Union, Public Interest Law Center, and law firm Arnold & Porter, various advocacy and voting-rights groups have asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to use its “King’s Bench” authority to conclusively hold that disqualifying timely received ballots with a missing or incorrect handwritten date violates the rights of voters protected by the Pennsylvania Constitution. The "King's Bench" power allows the state Supreme Court to hear cases of public importance without first going through the lower courts.

The organizations that filed the lawsuit are New PA Project Education Fund, The State Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause Pennsylvania, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Black Political Empowerment Project, POWER Interfaith, Make the Road Pennsylvania, OnePA Activists United, Casa San Josè, and Pittsburgh United.

Update: On October 5, 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied review of the case without reaching the merits.

Legal Documents
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