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Illustrious_Air_1438 t1_iutjarl wrote

Reply to comment by Cash_for_Johnny in For those worried about the PA Supreme Court’s ruling on undated ballots, it may be of some relief to you that this year’s ballot envelope is VERY unambiguous. While I personally find the ruling utterly preposterous I’d also say that the ballot itself is competently designed to compensate for it. by Trapezoidoid

It actually doesn't matter what date you write there as long as you write something. The counties receive ballots with people's birthdate, and they are counted.

Edit: I'm wrong, as one of the replies below states.

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Cash_for_Johnny t1_iutrpnz wrote

If it doesn't matter, then why all the hub-bub then.

It apparently matters to someone who wants to discount votes that are not in "their" favor, and in turn complain about voting integrity.

And you need to be talking in past tense because with new rules and restrictions on the books the future of assumptions is wide open.

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UnaffiliatedOpinion t1_iuuhlao wrote

The law says that "the elector must date and sign" the declaration on the envelope. What I believe has happened is that courts held that the meaning of "date" may be ambiguous. For example if someone fills out the ballot one day, seals the envelope on another day, and mails it on another day, which date is supposed to be in the envelope? It's not specified. So if the meaning is ambiguous, it is a slippery slope from there.

But it is specified that a date must be written, so not writing a date at all is clearly not ok.

So yes, it may be that the date requirement is pointless, but it is not necessarily the role of the judge to determine whether a law has a useful purpose or not.

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HonBurgher t1_iuuq0ng wrote

That should be in past tense. Even though counties had previously counted “wrong” dates, the Republicans’ lawsuit the PA Supreme Court ruled on had sought to stop the counting of ballots with either missing or “incorrect” dates, so now those are all supposed to be set aside, not just the undated ones.

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thenewtbaron t1_iuv6xks wrote

I guess I am just concerned what an "incorrect" date is... and who decides that.

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Illustrious_Air_1438 t1_iuzr58h wrote

You're right. I'm not sure how exactly they determine whether a date is incorrect though.

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