The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that a mistaken or missing date on a mail in ballot should not disqualify the ballot from being counted.

Baxter and Kinniry v Philadelphia Board of Elections spurred from a special election for PA House districts 195 and 201 that took place in September, 2024.

Two voters had their mail in ballots denied for date mistakes.

The ruling comes after years of litigation over the mail in ballot dating issue, that has spanned many different cases.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania, national ACLU, and Public Interest Law Center argued the case for the voters against the Philadelphia Board of Elections, Republican National Committee, and Pennsylvania Republican Party.

The Commonwealth Court ruled that discarding ballots that are otherwise turned in on time and meet all other requirements, but mess up the date portion on the outside envelope, is unconstitutional.

Previous cases have established that the date written on the outside of the envelope is not required to determine if the ballot is timely. In Pennsylvania, all mail in ballots received before 8pm on election day are eligible.

The decision can, and most likely will be, appealed to the Supreme Court.

November 5 is six days away.

In the 2022 election, ACLU legal director Witold Walczak says around 20,000 ballots were disqualified because of the dating issue.