Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.As some Pennsylvania voters prepare to vote by mail in this month’s primary election, they could be forgiven for not knowing what they need to do with the date line on their ballot envelope.Court rulings have flip-flopped on the requirement several times since Act 77, the law that implemented no-excuse mail voting, went into effect in 2020. For some elections since then, counties had to reject mail ballots that lacked a proper date; for others, they didn’t.The rule has resulted in thousands of otherwise qualified ballots being rejected and left many voters confused about what they need to do to have their votes counted.Here’s what voters need to know for the May 19 primary.What do I need to do with the date line for this election?Don’t write your birthday. Don’t write the day you registered to vote.Fill out the current date in the date line just below the signature space, which also needs to be filled out.During elections when counties were required to reject ballots for missing or improper dates, writing birthdays was among the most common mistakes voters made.In 2023, the Pennsylvania Department of State made changes to the ballot return envelope to reduce the number of ballots rejected for date issues. The department prefilled the year portion of the date line, which did indeed lead to fewer errors. Will my ballot be rejected if it has an improper date?Currently, counties cannot reject mail ballots for lacking a proper date. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled in 2024 that it was unconstitutional for counties to reject ballots for missing or improper dates. Last year, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld a separate ruling that said the requirement to date the return envelope violated voters’ First Amendment rights.That could change, however, as both the state case and federal case are being appealed. Election officials still recommend that voters date their return envelope.Why does the envelope need a date in the first place?Simply put, because the law says it does.When lawmakers passed Act 77 in 2019, it said voters must “date and sign the declaration” on the return envelope. The declaration affirms that the voter is qualified to vote and that they have not cast another ballot.The language was carried over from the state’s existing law governing absentee voting, which was written before counties used technology to track ballots and voters.Why has this been so contentious?Some voting-rights advocates, such as Common Cause, the NAACP, and the ACLU, believe the dating requirement does not serve any legitimate purpose and has disenfranchised otherwise eligible voters.They argue that the state’s ballot tracking system records when counties send a ballot out and when they receive it back, meaning the date isn’t needed to determine if the voter cast the ballot within the time allowed for the election. Proponents of keeping the date argue the written date could serve as a backup check if the tracking system fails, but election officials also timestamp ballot envelopes when they are received back from the voter, which can serve as a backup as well.Another argument for keeping the date is that it could help in detecting voter fraud, such as if someone requests a ballot, dies, and another person casts the ballot. This happened in Lancaster County in 2022, but opponents of the date requirement point out that, even if the date line had not been filled out in that case, there were other factors that would have detected the fraud.Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
