US midterms: Pennsylvania court rules to discount some mail-in ballots

Pennsylvania's top court has ruled that mail-in ballots marked with the wrong date will not be counted.

In a victory for Republicans ahead of the midterms, the court said such votes would be set aside and preserved.

Democrats and Republicans are deeply split on mail-in voting. The issue gained prominence after a surge in the 2020 election caused by the pandemic.

Republicans fear postal voting benefits Democrats, even though data suggests both parties are affected equally.

About 70% of the 1.4 million requests for mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania this year come from Democrats, compared to 20% from Republicans.

After the previous election, then-President Donald Trump condemned mail-in ballots as a "big scam" and baselessly claimed that millions of ballots were sent from abroad as part of a "rigged" election. The former president narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016 before losing by a slim margin in 2020, prompting some Republicans to claim the election was stolen because of ballot irregularities.

Citing a need for election security, Republicans in October sued to stop undated ballots from being counted.

The six members of Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said that they were evenly split on whether or not discarding ballots marked with incorrect dates violated the federal Civil Rights Act, which makes it illegal to throw out ballots for minor reasons.

It said that state election officials should "segregate and preserve" any ballots that were mailed in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes in case there was a further legal challenge.

It is unclear whether Pennsylvania will appeal against the decision.

Democrats and civil rights organisations have characterised lawsuits aimed at restricting mail-in voting as efforts to restrict votes and potentially tip the scales in tight races.

In the 2020 election, for example, Philadelphia alone recorded 8,300 undated ballots out of a total of 381,000 mail-in ballots,

"We're disappointed," the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said. "No-one should be disenfranchised for an irrelevant technicality."

So far this election cycle, counties across Pennsylvania have reported receiving 850,000 completed mail-in ballots out of 1.4 million requested, according to the Associated Press news agency.

The state is host to two of the most closely watched races in the US midterms: the gubernatorial race between Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Doug Mastriano, and the Senate race between celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. The latter race could ultimately determine which party controls the Senate.

Pennsylvania electoral officials have warned that it could take several days for the votes to be counted and certified. Legal challenges over mail-in ballots could delay the process further.

Mail-in ballots have also been the focus of lawsuits in a number of other states including Delaware, Wisconsin, Arizona and Illinois.