Democrats and leftist activist groups, with an assist from the courts, are hoping to propel Vice President Kamala Harris to victory in Pennsylvania by counting absentee and mail-in ballots that are either improperly dated or undated, in violation of state law requirements.

The Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania GOP are now urging the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to intervene and reverse a lower court ruling that declared the date requirement to be unconstitutional, according to The Federalist.

The issue has the potential to impact upwards of 10,000 or more ballots, which could prove critical and decisive in a close election in the Keystone State.

Ballot dating requirement ruled unconstitutional

According to SpotlightPA, a Commonwealth Court appellate panel ruled 4-1 last week that it is unconstitutional to reject an absentee or mail-in ballot if it arrives in a timely fashion but is improperly dated or not dated at all, which is a requirement of Pennsylvania's election integrity laws.

"The refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote recognized in the free and equal elections clause," the majority declared in the lengthy ruling.

The majority added that the required date on the outer secrecy envelope containing a ballot "is not used to determine the timeliness of a ballot, a voter’s qualifications/eligibility to vote, or fraud," and, "Therefore, the dating provisions serve no compelling government interest."

Appellate ruling appealed

The dating requirement was included in a batch of election integrity legislation passed by Pennsylvania Republicans in 2019 but were challenged by a coalition of left-wing activist groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union, which asserted that rejecting ballots that violated the date requirement unconstitutionally disenfranchised voters, per The Federalist.

Given that the Democrat-led state refused to defend the law, the RNC and PAGOP intervened to do so and have now appealed the appellate panel's decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and argued that, in addition to the requirement being constitutional, the Commonwealth Court lacked jurisdiction and applied the wrong level of scrutiny to the challenged law.

The appeal, which notes that the state's highest court has already upheld the dating requirement in a separate case, asserts, "The Commonwealth Court majority’s decision is unprecedented, rests on multiple reversible errors, and threatens to unleash chaos, uncertainty, and an erosion of public confidence in the imminent 2024 general election."

In a statement to The Federalist, former Trump White House counsel Derek Lyons, now the president and CEO of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, said of the appellate panel's ruling, "We have reached a point of true absurdity in election law litigation. A court that does not even have jurisdiction over this matter somehow concluded that asking people to write down a date on the envelope in which they transmit their mail-in ballots imposes a ‘severe burden’ on their ability to vote."

"Let’s be clear: Even second-graders know how to write the date on their schoolwork, so every adult voter can do likewise on their ballot envelope with no trouble whatsoever," he continued. "Next, we will find out that asking people to mark their own ballots is also a constitutional violation. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must act quickly to reverse this decision and end this madness."

Multiple election-related lawsuits across the country

This legal fight in Pennsylvania is just one of more than 100 ongoing election-related litigious disputes between Republicans and Democrats in federal and state courts across the nation, according to the Associated Press, as both sides attempt to change or defend various state-level election rules and lay the groundwork for potential post-election challenges to disputed results.

RNC spokeswoman Claire Zunk said in a statement about the legal battles, "President Trump’s election integrity effort is dedicated to protecting every legal vote, mitigating threats to the voting process, and securing the election."

"While Democrats continue their election interference against President Trump and the American people, our operation is confronting their schemes and preparing for November," she added.