The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether requiring voters to date their mail ballot return envelopes violates federal law.
The group filed its petition Friday on behalf of the Pennsylvania branch of the NAACP. It follows a separate request from voting rights groups this week to Pennsylvania’s highest court for an expedited ruling on the date requirement.
“The right to vote is one of the most important in this country,” said Janette Wallace, general counsel of the NAACP. “Ballots should not be rejected because of irrelevant errors. We will continue to fight so that voters’ voices may be heard. That’s why we’re taking this to the Supreme Court.”
The case is one of several challenging the rules around mail ballot voting in Pennsylvania, and centers on whether the state’s requirement that voters handwrite a date on their mail ballot return envelope violates the materiality provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.