Pennsylvania Ballots Can’t Be Thrown Out For Mismatched Signatures, Court Rules In Blow To GOP

Topline

Mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania cannot be rejected because the voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared Friday, ensuring that more votes will be counted in a crucial battleground state and undermining potential GOP efforts to have mail-in ballots—which are predominantly being cast by Democrats—thrown out and invalidated.

Key Facts

Big Number

1,461,135. That’s the number of mail-in ballots that have been submitted in Pennsylvania as of Friday, according to state data published by the U.S. Elections Project. Of those votes, 1,031,663 have been cast by Democrats, as compared with 295,430 cast by Republicans and 125,002 cast by unaffiliated voters.

Key Background

The ballot-counting process in Pennsylvania has become fraught even weeks before Election Day, as the battleground state—which went for Trump in 2016 by a 0.7% margin—is likely to experience a contentious counting process that stretches past Election Day. The state’s deadline for when mail-in ballots must be received was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 4-4 vote that allows ballots to be accepted for three days after Election Day. Negotiations between GOP state lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf over whether to let election officials start counting ballots before Election Day appear to be dead, preventing officials from counting ballots before 7:00 a.m. on Election Day and ensuring it will likely take several days to determine the election result. A previous court decision stipulating that “naked ballots” returned without a secrecy envelope must be rejected has also drawn controversy, with election officials warning thousands of ballots could be thrown out as a result. The state is expected to be one of the primary places where legal challenges could play out as ballots are being counted, as the GOP and Trump campaign potentially try to challenge mail-in ballots and have them invalidated, particularly if opponent Joe Biden appears to be pulling ahead in the vote count.

Tangent

The signature-matching order was one of two blows dealt to the GOP in Pennsylvania Friday, as the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania also ruled against Republicans’ fight to install poll watchers at satellite election offices where voters can return mail-in ballots, ruling that the offices aren’t official polling places. The Trump campaign and GOP have strongly fought to install poll watchers in Pennsylvania—particularly in the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia—and has come under fire for allegedly filming voters in Philadelphia who use ballot drop boxes.

What To Watch For

The GOP still could win their fight to invalidate ballots for mismatched signatures, as election law expert Josh Douglas noted on Twitter that they could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Four justices on the court signaled they were willing to override the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s judgement by voting against the state’s extended mail-in voting deadline, and Judge Amy Coney Barrett could provide the deciding fifth vote after she’s sworn in.

Further Reading

Pennsylvania high court to settle voter signatures fight (Associated Press)

Pa., GOP Again At Odds, This Time Over Ballot Signatures (Law 360)

Pennsylvania Presidential Result Likely To Come Days After Election As Talks Stall On Early Count (Forbes)

Pennsylvania could become ‘ground zero’ for court battles on and after Election Day (Spotlight PA)

Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballot Ruling Could Cause 100,000 Ballots To Be Rejected, Official Warns (Forbes)

Philly Judge Strikes Down Trump Campaign’s Poll Watcher Plan (Forbes)