On March 27, the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 that Pennsylvania may invalidate postal ballots if the voter forgot to fill in the date on the outer envelope, or to put the wrong date or year. Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP Branches v Secretary, 23-3166.

The majority opinion is by Judge Thomas L. Ambro, a Clinton appointee. It is also signed by Judge Cindy K. Chung, a Biden appointee. The dissent, which is as long as the majority opinion, is by Judge Patty Shwartz, an Obama appointee. Here is the Opinion.

The 1964 federal Civil Rights Law has a provision relating to elections. It says no state may prevent someone from voting if he or she makes an error that is not material to whether he or she should be able to cast a ballot. This is known as the “materiality” law. The majority construed that law to only regulates who is allowed to vote, but not to whether the ballot should be counted.

The majority acknowledges that the Pennsylvania requirement is not needed. When ballots are received by the elections office, they are date-stamped, so whether the voter also dated the envelope doesn’t have any practical significance.

On March 20, Arizona’s Republican 2022 nominees for Governor and Secretary of State, Kari Lake and Mark Fincham, had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to expedie consideration of whether to hear their lawsuit on electronic vote-counting machines. A week has passed and the Court still hasn’t acted on the request. Lake v Fontes, 23-1021. The candidates believe the machines are not reliable and they want their case heard in time to alter the 2024 elections.

As has been reported, the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., independent presidential petition in Nevada was circulated without a vice-presidential candidate listed.

The Nevada law says, “298.109. A person who desires to be an independent candidate for the office of President must file with the Secretary of State a declaration of candidacy and a petition of candidacy, in which the person must also designate a nominee for Vice President.”

The law also says the candidate must file a copy of the petition before the petition is circulated.

The Kennedy campaign filed a copy of their petition with the Secretary of State before it was circulated, and the Secretary of State’s office approved the petition even though it didn’t list anyone for vice-president. Then, in an abundance of caution, the campaign again asked the Secretary of State is a vice-presidential candidate was needed, and was told that it was not. The Secretary of State’s response is in writing.

It is possible to read the law to mean that the vice-presidential candidate’s name is required on the declaration but not the petition. The use of the word “in”, instead of “on”, suggests this idea.

Before 1993, the law said, “A person who desires to be an independent candidate for President must file with the Secretary of State a certificate of candidacy, in which he may also designate his nominee for Vice President. The certificate must be signed by the candidate for President, his nominee for Vice President if designated, and…” (the remainder of the sentence contains the number of signatures required).

In 1980, John Anderson’s Nevada petition did not list anyone for vice-president. Also in 1992, Ross Perot’s Nevada petition did not list anyone for vice-president. The Perot petition had a blank line for vice-president.