Fetterman campaign files suit over undated mail-in ballots
U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman and other Democrats filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging Pennsylvania’s plan not to count undated or wrongly dated ballots that have been mailed in.
Fetterman is in a tight race with Republican rival Mehmet Oz to replace retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, also a Republican.
Last week, the commonwealth’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee and other groups, who argued that state law requires voters to correctly write the date on a return envelope when mailing in ballots.
The court ordered county elections officials not to count any absentee and mail-in ballots received for today’s general election that are contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes.
Monday’s suit claims the ruling is an “unnecessary impediment” the violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the first and 14th Amendments.
The date on a mail ballot envelope "has no bearing on a voter’s qualifications and serves no purpose other than to erect barriers to qualified voters exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote," the plaintiffs wrote in the 17-page filing.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, states the date instruction “imposes unnecessary hurdles that eligible Pennsylvanians must clear to exercise their most fundamental right."
The suit names the state’s 67 county election boards as defendants.
