WASHINGTON - The two most populous counties of the battleground state of Pennsylvania will not be able to throw out mail-in votes over incorrect envelope dates, according to a Friday decision by a state court.

The ruling in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania applied to the Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties.

Officials disqualified nearly 16,000 mail-in ballots for irregularities during April's primary election. Almost half were disqualified because of issues like missing signatures and wrong dates on outer envelopes, according to the New York Times.

"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 (of the state constitution)," Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote in the opinion.

Pennsylvania is a key battleground state in a tight presidential race for the Nov. 5 U.S. elections in which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump.

Battleground states are those where elections were won by a narrow margin of 3 percentage points or even less in the last contest. Pennsylvania is one of seven such states.

  - Reuters