Civics: The Law, Elections and Rule Making

Wall Street Journal:

Pennsylvania law says voters must “fill out, date and sign” the ballot declaration. The state judiciary has held that dating is mandatory. But last month in a dispute over a 2021 judicial election, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that undated ballots are valid if they arrived on time. The court cited the Civil Rights Act, which says officials may not “deny the right of any individual to vote” based on a paperwork error that “is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law.”

This is a good opportunity for the Supreme Court to make clear that judges shouldn’t rush into ballot-counting rooms without a compelling reason. The Third Circuit hadn’t even written a publishable opinion when it issued a judgment in that 2021 case. The timing, three days after Pennsylvania’s primary, suggests intent to upend the way that ballots were being tallied.