Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a772_h3dj.pdf
Page Number: 5

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

5 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

ballot to be disqualified.  But §10101(a)(2)(B) does not ad-
dress that issue.  It applies only to errors or omissions that 
are not material to the question whether a person is quali-
fied to vote.  It leaves it to the States to decide which voting
rules should be mandatory.

The problem with the Third Circuit’s interpretation can
be illustrated by considering what would happen if it were
applied  to  a  mail-in  voting  rule  that  is  indisputably  im-
portant, namely, the requirement that a mail-in ballot be
signed.  Pa.  Stat.  Ann.,  Tit.  25,  §3150.16(a).    Suppose  a
voter did not personally sign his or her ballot but instead 
instructed another person to complete the ballot and sign it 
using  the  standard  notation  employed  when  a  letter  is 
signed for someone else: “p. p. John or Jane Doe.”  Or sup-
pose that a voter, for some reason, typed his or her name 
instead of signing it.  Those violations would be material in 
determining whether a ballot should be counted, but they
would not be “material in determining whether such indi-
vidual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.”
Therefore, under the Third Circuit’s interpretation, a ballot
signed by a third party and a ballot with a typed name ra-
ther than a signature would have to be counted.  It seems 
most unlikely that this is what 52 U. S. C. §10101(a)(2)(B) 
means.2 

—————— 

2 In light of what I have written about elements 2 and 5, it is unlikely
that  element  4  must  be  addressed,  but  for  the  sake  of  completeness,  I 
will  add  that  the  language  of  that  provision  must  be  given  a  strained 
meaning  in  order  to  make  it  applicable  to  the  validity  of  a  rule  about 
filling out a mail-in ballot.  Element 4 demands that a “record or paper”
must be “related to [an] application, registration, or other act requisite 
to voting.”  52 U. S. C. §10101(a)(2)(B).  A mail-in ballot is a “record or 
paper,” and it does not appear to be related in any direct sense to any 
“application” or “registration,” so the question is whether it is “related 
to” some “other act requisite to voting.”  But the casting of a ballot con-
stitutes  the  act  of  voting.  Indeed,  the  statute  specifies  that  “the  word 
‘vote’ includes all action necessary to make a vote effective including . . .