Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s (D) campaign filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania election officials on Monday demanding undated or misdated absentee ballots be counted in the midterms.
The decision to sue the Pennsylvania county board of elections comes nearly a week after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the board to refrain from counting any absentee and mail-in ballots received for the Nov. 8 general election that are in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes.
The court also ordered that all misdated or undated ballots be taken out of the mix and preserved by the county board of elections because it was “evenly divided” on the issue of whether failing to count these ballots was a constitutional violation.
Fetterman and his campaign for U.S. Senate asked for a federal court order to count all mail-in ballots, despite what date voters write on the outside of the envelope.
Pennsylvania requires all voters who submit ballots by mail to “fill out, date and sign the declaration” on the envelope in which the ballot is placed.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Fetterman campaign filed the lawsuit in a Pittsburgh federal court and was joined by the Democrats’ U.S. House and Senate campaign arms. Also included in the suite were two Democratic voters from Erie County who submitted undated mail-in ballots.
“The date [requirement] imposes unnecessary hurdles that eligible Pennsylvanians must clear to exercise their most fundamental right, resulting in otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily rejected without any reciprocal benefit to the Commonwealth,” their lawsuit reads, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The race between Fetterman and Republican Candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz is neck and neck with recent polls giving the latter a slight edge over his opponent.
It is estimated by Fetterman’s camp that thousands of ballots will be left uncounted for what they characterize as a technicality related to a wrong or missing date.