There are several reasons a county board might reject a mail-in ballot.

Lack of a signature; lack of a secrecy envelope or ballots that arrive late are just a few.

That list is now one reason smaller.

A state appellate court has stuck a provision that required the date on the outer envelope of a mail-in or absentee ballot.

All ballots are required to be turned in by 8 p.m. on election night.

“As has been determined in prior litigation, the date on the outer mail-in ballot envelopes is not used to determine the timeliness of a ballot, a voter’s qualifications/eligibility to vote, or fraud,” the Commonwealth Court ruled in an opinion handed down last week.

“Therefore, the dating provisions serve no compelling government interest. The refusal to count undated or incorrectly dated but timely mail ballots submitted by otherwise eligible voters because of meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors violates the fundamental right to vote recognized in the free and equal elections clause.”

The court found a “substantial threat of disenfranchisement based on strict enforcement of the dating provisions” in spite of efforts undertaken to make “absentee and mail-in voting easier for voters.”

The challenge was brought by a series of advocacy groups.

“(W)e declare that strict enforcement of the dating provisions to reject timely submitted but undated or incorrectly dated absentee and mail-in ballots is unconstitutional under the free and equal elections clause and enjoin their strict enforcement to prevent against further disenfranchisement,” the court concluded.