Mail-in ballots completely changed the 2020 election cycle. But they’ve been under intense scrutiny in recent months.
And now a federal court has stunned the entire nation with a massive ruling on mail-in ballots.
There’s no understating how wild the 2020 election cycle truly was. Everything was flipped on its head as there was a pandemic panic at its height when Americans were supposed to be going to the ballot box to vote for their preferred candidates for the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and the White House.
We say ‘supposed’ to go to the ballot box because tens of millions of Americans were being told that they really don’t need to or even should go to the ballot box to vote in person because you just might catch that nasty virus that the Left was trying to say was way worse than it actually was.
Instead of mail-in ballots being used for very specific cases where someone literally could not vote in person because of disabilities or maybe being deployed for service to the military, Americans who would normally just vote in person were being encouraged to just stay indoors and vote from their couch.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense was naturally concerned that this could be abused by bad actors. The Left and the Fake News Media outlets, of course, went to bat for the “security” of mail-in ballots like their lives depended on it. They say that mail-in ballots are just as secure as in-person voting, despite no election official seeing any person cast the ballot from home and sticking it in the mail.
Today, mail-in ballots are heavily scrutinized, particularly in battleground states where the difference of just a few thousand votes amongst millions can decide which candidate gets a win.
In Pennsylvania, a lawsuit has been making its way through the courts arguing that by requiring mail-in ballots to have signed dates, there may be votes that are not counted that are legitimate. However, most agree that, of course, mail-in ballots need valid signed dates to be counted. Otherwise this system could so easily be abused and it would be a mess.
In March, a low federal court decided that the requirement for mail-in ballots to have signed dates is fair and reasonable. It simply makes sense. The decision was appealed by those on the Left who say this is unfair.
However, they just got hit with bad news as the appellate courts aren’t even willing to hear the case at all. They’re wiping their hands clean of this nonsense, as the lower court’s decision makes perfect sense.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld its decision regarding the requirement for voters to write dates on mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, a pivotal battleground state. In March, the court ruled that the state’s mandate for dates on mail-in ballots does not violate the Civil Rights Act. Despite calls for reconsideration, the court declined to rehear the case en banc, affirming that ballots lacking the correct date on the outer envelopes will not be counted.
Judge Susan Paradise Baxter previously ruled that ballots arriving on time, even without a proper date, should be counted to avoid violating the Civil Rights Act. However, the appeals court disagreed, asserting that the Act pertains solely to the determination of voter eligibility, not ballot processing procedures. Judge Thomas Ambro emphasized that Pennsylvania law mandates the dating of mail-in ballot envelopes, deeming non-compliance as rendering the ballot invalid.
“In the above-entitled case having been submitted to the judges who participated in the decision of this Court and to all the other available circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service, and no judge who concurred in the decision having asked for rehearing, and a majority of the judges of the circuit in regular service not having voted for rehearing, the petitions for rehearing by the panel and the Court en banc, are denied,” the appellate court wrote in its decision.
Democrat attorney Marc Elias, who ran the Russia collusion scam of 2016 and the 2020 effort to get rid of anti-fraud measures, said that this was one of the most importance cases of the year. Big loss for him and his people. https://t.co/2stKkcNJjD
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 30, 2024
Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground in both presidential and congressional elections, is anticipated to be fiercely contested in 2024. With former President Donald Trump currently holding a slight lead over President Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics average, and considering the narrow margin of his defeat in 2020, every aspect of the electoral process, including ballot requirements, is under scrutiny.
“The Pennsylvania General Assembly has decided that mail-in voters must date the declaration on the return envelope of their ballot to make their vote effective,” Judge Thomas Ambro said in his opinion.
The Honorable Judge Thomas Ambro said that this is a simple matter of complying with law that’s already been clarified and interpreted properly by the Pennslvania state Supreme Court Justices.
“The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unanimously held this ballot-casting rule is mandatory; thus, failure to comply renders a ballot invalid under Pennsylvania law,” Ambro went on to write.
With the 2024 election proving to be a critical and extremely close race in Pennsylvania, these decisions for increased election security are more important than ever. Anyone who argues otherwise just simply doesn’t care about secure and fair elections.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
