Lancaster, Pa. (July 10, 2024) – Today, the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans (PARA), represented by Fair Elections Center and LeVan Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC, announced a major victory in a lawsuit challenging the rejection of mail-in and absentee ballots that were missing the last two digits of the year from the handwritten date on the outer return envelope.
As part of a mandatory directive to all 67 county Boards of Elections, the Pennsylvania Department of State has instructed the full year to be pre-printed on the return envelope for mail-in and absentee ballots, instead of requiring voters to complete the last two digits of the year by hand. This morning, having achieved what it set out to accomplish, PARA voluntarily discontinued its lawsuit.
Mike Crossey, President of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans, said: “The right to vote and choose our leaders has never been more important. We are relieved that no voters will be disenfranchised over this technicality and thank the Department of State for taking action on this issue. The Pennsylvania Alliance will continue to fight back when anyone tries to prevent older voters’ ballots from being counted.”
“This mandatory directive is a major victory for all Pennsylvania voters who will no longer be disenfranchised because of a meaningless technicality. Our litigation highlighted the absurdity of rejecting ballots for missing the last two numbers of the year when the year is not in dispute and clearly printed elsewhere on the document,” said Jon Sherman, Litigation Director at Fair Elections Center. “We are thrilled that the Department of State stepped in here to correct this injustice before the upcoming November election.”
Jon Cochran of LeVan Stapleton Segal Cochran said: “This is the right outcome. We accomplished exactly what we set out to do: remove a barrier that threatened to undermine the fundamental right to vote for all Pennsylvanians.”
Under Pennsylvania law, mail-in and absentee voters must record the date of their declaration. In late 2023, the Pennsylvania Department of State redesigned the return envelope for mail-in and absentee ballots so that the first two digits of the year (“20”) were pre-printed on the outer envelope; voters were required to fill in the last two digits (“24”) by hand. During the April primary elections, certain counties—including Lancaster County—rejected ballots that were missing the last two handwritten digits of the year, despite guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of State urging these ballots to be counted.
The Pennsylvania Alliance’s lawsuit argued that the rejection of such ballots violated Pennsylvania’s statutes and the state constitution, especially since the current year was displayed on the ballots themselves and indisputable.
The full complaint filed in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas can be referenced here.
