The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 29, 2025
A federal appeals court panel ruled August 26th that Pennsylvania counties must count mail-in ballots with a missing or incorrect date. The decision could protect the vote of as many as 10,000 voters each election.
The ballots in question were received by election officials on time from eligible voters, but lacked a date, or included the wrong date. Voters claimed the rejections violated their free speech and the Materiality Provisions of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. August 26th, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision agreeing that the rejections violated the 1st and 14th amendment rights of the voters.
The court also rejected the GOP’s argument that the date was critical to preventing election fraud. Writing for the panel, Senior Judge D. Brooks Smith noted, QUOTE, “ And discarding thousands of ballots every election is not a reasonable trade-off in view of the date requirement’s extremely limited and unlikely capacity to detect and deter fraud.”
The opinion continued, “We are unable to justify the Commonwealth’s practice of discarding ballots contained in return envelopes with missing or incorrect dates that has resulted in the disqualification of thousands of presumably proper ballots.”
A separate Pennsylvania Supreme Court case arguing the ballot rejections violate the Commonwealth’s Free and Equal Elections Clause is still pending.
We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
American Democracy Minute – (2022) Undated Mail-In Ballots Case Impacts PA U.S. Senate Race
American Democracy Minute – (2024) The ACLU Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Rule on Undated Pennsylvania Mail-in Ballots Case
American Democracy Minute – Good Democracy News for a Change: Federal Court Directs Pennsylvania to Count Undated Mail-in Ballots in Ongoing Partisan Dispute
Politics PA – Court Rules Pennsylvania Must Count Undated Mail-In Ballots
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit – Opinion in BETTE EAKIN et. al. vs. Adams County Board of Elections
Protect Democracy – The Constitutionality of the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania – Docket for Separate Case Challenging Free & Equal Elections Clause in PA Constitution
Groups Taking Action:
ACLU PA, PA Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause PA, Black Political Empowerment Project
Register or Check Your Voter Registration:
U.S. Election Assistance Commission – How to Register And Vote in Your State
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