The Supreme Court sided with a Republican candidate who lost his bid for judgeship in Pennsylvania, ordering the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out its ruling that allowed the counting of mail-in ballots in the race.
Justices on the high court vacated the 3rd Circuit ruling at the request of David Ritter, who ran in 2021 to be a judge on the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas. He lost to his Democratic rival Zachary Cohen by five votes after 257 absentee ballots without dates on the envelope were counted.
The decision to remand the case does not affect the outcome of the 2021 race.
But by remanding the case, the high court held that the 3rd Circuit ruling cannot be used as precedent in the three states covered by the federal appellate court, which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.
SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO BLOCK COUNTING OF UNDATED MAIL BALLOTS IN PENNSYLVANIA
“The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit with instructions to dismiss the case as moot,” the high court order said. Democratic-appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have denied granting cert for the case.
Pennsylvania law requires voters to write the date on the outer envelope of a mail-in ballot, but the 3rd Circuit sought to curtail that law by holding it would violate a provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which aimed to prevent minor ballot errors from denying someone’s right to vote.
But Ritter was successful in his appeal to the high court through his argument that the state’s ballot rules help election integrity and deter potential fraudulent actions.
In June, the high court’s justices denied Ritter’s bid to block the counting of undated ballots. But members of the court’s 6-3 Republican-appointed majority, including Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from that decision.
Alito wrote that the 3rd Circuit decision “could well affect the outcome” of the midterm elections, which are slated for Nov. 8.
“When a mail-in ballot is not counted because it was not filled out correctly, the voter is not denied the right to vote,” Alito wrote. “Rather, that individual’s vote is not counted because he or she did not follow the rules for casting a ballot. Casting a vote, whether by following the directions for using a voting machine or completing a paper ballot, requires compliance with certain rules.”
Although the high court initially rejected Ritter’s petition, he filed a subsequent petition to the justices asking them again to vacate the 3rd Circuit ruling, arguing the lower court ruling would have statewide implications.
The decision comes as Republicans are vying to take hold of both the House and the Senate, which are currently held by a slim Democratic majority.
Additionally, a closely watched Pennsylvania Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz could be affected by this decision with any undated mail-in ballots poised to go uncounted.
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When Ritter sought the Supreme Court’s input earlier, Oz filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the judicial candidate’s claim.
However, a group of bipartisan elderly voters filed the lawsuit that led to the initial 3rd Circuit holding. The Republican and Democratic elderly voters were frustrated that their vote would not be counted for neglecting to write the date on the mail-in ballot envelope, decrying the rule as a “meaningless technicality.”
