Justices to sort out if mail-in ballot envelopes need dates

By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Senior Pennsylvania state elections officials are arguing in a new court filing that handwritten dates on the envelopes that many state voters use to mail in their ballots shouldn’t be mandatory. The brief filed with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday says that’s partially because the Legislature in 1968 acted to deemphasize the importance of dates on envelopes. Some county officials who run the nuts and bolts of vote counting are poised to throw out ballots without the proper dates in next month’s election, while others are expected to count them. The Republican plaintiffs say if those ballots aren’t thrown out they should at least be segregated during counting.