Pennsylvania mail-in ballots submitted with inaccurate dates written on the envelopes can no longer be tossed and excluded from election results, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a case that has divided Democrats and Republicans in the battleground state.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously decided that throwing out incorrectly dated mail-in ballots is unconstitutional, citing a lack of justification for the state to disqualify the rights of thousands of voters who make the error when casting their ballots. The decision upholds a prior ruling by a federal judge in Pittsburgh earlier this year.

Pennsylvania law requires voters to write the date on the return envelope for mail-in ballots when putting them in the mail. Some voters forget to follow instruction

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