A Mail-Vote Time Bomb Keeps Ticking

null By The Editorial BoardNov. 26, 2023 5:05 pm ETShareResizeListen(3 min)A Luzerne County resident drops off a mail-in ballot in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. Photo: HANNAH BEIER/REUTERSThe 2024 election will probably be preceded by another flood of lawsuits over voting rules, especially absentee ballots, and keep an eye on Pennsylvania. Last week a federal judge there ruled that timely mail ballots must be counted even if the voter neglected to write the date, as state law requires. This may go to the Supreme Court, which punted a similar case last year.The saga of Pennsylvania’s undated ballots since the Covid pandemic is worth unspooling, because it shows how litigation puts indeterminacy into the election system. State law is unambiguous in saying that absentee voters must “fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope.” This requirement has gone to court repeatedly for three years, with frustratingly inconclusive results.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All R