The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a challenge to Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot date requirements.

The plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit include the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, and local voting organizations. They initiated the suit in 2022 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered county election boards to reject mail-in ballots with a missing or incorrectly written date, resulting in more than 10,000 ballots being rejected. The trial court initially found in plaintiffs’ favor, but the decision was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, prompting the plaintiffs to file a petition with the US Supreme Court.

In their petition, the plaintiffs argued that rejecting mail-in ballots over date errors violates the non-materiality provision of the Civil Rights Act. Under 52 USC §10101(a)(2)(b), no person shall “deny the right of individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.” The plaintiffs allege that the improper entry of a date upon a ballot is immaterial to whether an individual is qualified to vote in an election. The immateriality clause, they further contend, does not also apply to original registration but to multiple stages of the voting process per the reasoning of other circuit courts. Moreover, because the consequence of the ruling would disenfranchise thousands of voters, the issue would be of sufficient national importance to warrant being heard by the US Supreme Court.

Respondents, most notably the Republican National Committee, argued that the plaintiffs misunderstand the purpose of the non-materiality clause of the Civil Rights Act. It is not the actual submission of ballots the provision seeks to regulate, but to instead prevent voters from being denied registration to vote on immaterial grounds. They further contend that the actual policies on mail-in ballot were put in place to prevent voter fraud, which would be a reasonable ground for regulation.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case means that the Third Circuit’s ruling stands and Pennsylvania counties must reject incorrectly dated ballots.