Should mail-in-votes that are undated or incorrectly dated be counted in Tuesday’s midterm elections? Common sense, state law, and a Pennsylvania court all say “no,” but Democrat Senate wannabe John Fetterman thinks otherwise and took his case to court Monday. Fetterman, who’s in a tight race (notice I didn’t say “neck and neck”) with Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, joined the Democrats’ U.S. House and Senate campaign arms and two Democratic voters to sue in a federal court in Pittsburgh, arguing that the handwritten date requirement is a burden and an attempt at voter suppression.

I guess the argument is that it’s super hard to correctly sign and date your ballot, or something. Here’s a way you could avoid the problem: walk down to your local precinct and cast your vote there. That method seemed to satisfy most people not named Stacey Abrams until the pandemic, when Democrats used it as the excuse to start heavily plugging their dream of mail-in voting.

The lawsuit, filed in part by Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman's campaign, argues that a provision in state law requiring mail-in ballots include the date on the outside of the envelope is a violation of federal law. https://t.co/FW2WelgBz7

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 8, 2022

The lawsuit states:

The date [requirement] imposes unnecessary hurdles that eligible Pennsylvanians must clear to exercise their most fundamental right, resulting in otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily rejected without any reciprocal benefit to the Commonwealth.

Fetterman’s decision to sue comes after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered election officials not to count any absentee and mail-in ballots that arrive in undated or incorrectly dated envelopes. Fetterman is asking for all ballots to be counted, regardless of any date issues.

(In a separate case, a Pennsylvania court ruled Monday against the GOP and said that election officials can notify voters that their mail-in ballots include errors, such as incorrect or missing dates, and assist voters with fixing the issues. At this rate, they’ll soon allow officials to just fill out people’s ballots for them.)

The candidate has already indicated that he intends to draw the tallying process out for as long as possible, saying early Monday, before the lawsuit was announced, that voters should “buckle up for a long week” and that the ballot counting process could take “several days.” Great.

As Trump and others have pointed out, France routinely tallies their vote by the end of the voting day, so it’s ridiculous that these drawn-out battles are now a regular occurrence in the U.S.

France has a population of 67.5 million people vs Pennsylvania’s 12.96 million… France counted everybody’s vote in one night…. there is no excuse for Pennsylvania or any other state to take extra weeks to count ballots, unless they’re rigging the vote

— Resist Liberalism (@Runcie) November 3, 2022

Fetterman is right to be desperate and to pray that every single vote be counted—no matter how faulty or incorrect—because Dr. Oz has been gaining momentum in the polls. Meanwhile, Fetterman’s performance in their sole debate was so disastrous that it rocked even some supporters. The contest will undoubtedly be tight; expect Fetterman and his campaign to litigate, fight, claw, and scratch for every conceivable vote, illegal or legal.

If he gets his way, the outcome, unfortunately, may not be known for days—or even longer.