The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request to halt a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that required the counting of 257 timely received ballots in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, which had been excluded from the 2021 election due to the lack of a handwritten date on the outer envelope.

PHILADELPHIA - A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled today that federal civil rights law requires Lehigh County to count 257 mail and absentee ballots that had been excluded because voters had not handwritten a date on the outer return envelope.

In a case that could impact thousands of Pennsylvania voters in future elections, the American Civil Liberties Union today urged a federal appeals court to order Lehigh County elections officials to count 257 previously disqualified mail and absentee ballots from the 2021 general election.

LANCASTER, Pa. - A Lancaster County judge ruled today that the county commissioners violated the state’s Sunshine Act when they failed to post public notice that they would be considering the removal of the county’s one mail and absentee ballot dropbox at the April meeting of the Board of Elections.

LANCASTER, Pa. - The Lancaster County commissioners failed to properly notify the public that they’d be considering removing the county’s one ballot drop box at a meeting last month, a failure that violates a Pennsylvania open-government law.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A federal district court in Allentown, Pennsylvania, ruled today that the mail and absentee ballots of 257 voters from the 2021 general election in Lehigh County must be disqualified because the voters mistakenly forgot to date their return envelopes.

EASTON, Pa. - The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a federal civil rights lawsuit today against Lehigh County to require the county to count 257 mail-in ballots from the 2021 general election that were disqualified only because they were missing the handwritten date on the outer envelope.

HARRISBURG - Today, a Commonwealth Court judge overturned the 2019 law that made vote-by-mail possible in Pennsylvania. In the 2020 general election alone, nearly three million Pennsylvanians took advantage of the law to vote in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

HARRISBURG - A series of lawsuits challenging subpoenas issued by the Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee will continue, after a ruling today from Commonwealth Court denying “summary relief” to all parties in the litigation.