Pennsylvania Court: Counties Must Notify Mail-Ballot Errors

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a 4–3 decision held counties must notify voters via the SURE system when mail ballots have disqualifying envelope errors and must inform affected voters they may cast a provisional ballot on Election Day as a “fail‑safe.” The court found Washington County violated voters’ due‑process rights after misreporting problematic ballots as “received,” leaving roughly 250–300 mail ballots uncounted and denying voters the chance to fix errors or use provisional ballots. The ruling clarified that, while state law does not require counties to allow ballot “cure,” withholding notice of errors violates due process and the Election Code should be interpreted to enfranchise voters. Many Pennsylvania counties already used “notice and cure” procedures, but Washington County’s practices departed from that approach. Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide Bost v. Illinois Board of Elections on whether a federal candidate has standing to challenge an Illinois rule allowing ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to 14 days later, and the justices are also weighing related 5th Circuit disputes over post‑Election Day counting. Together, these cases signal intensifying judicial scrutiny of who can challenge election rules and what notice and remedies voters must receive when mail ballots risk rejection.