The Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket on Monday rebuked Democratic-controlled elections boards that counted undated and misdated mail ballots, siding with Republicans and reiterating that such votes are invalid.
Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks counties voted to depend lots of of such ballots in current days regardless of earlier rulings from the court docket that they can’t be included on this election.
“It is critical to the rule of law that individual counties and municipalities and their elected and appointed officials, like any other parties, obey orders of this Court,” Justice David Wecht wrote, joined by Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy, in a terse concurring opinion.
The ballots’ relevance has significantly come into focus as Pennsylvania’s Senate race heads to an automated recount. Republican Dave McCormick leads by slightly below 20,000 votes, and Resolution Desk HQ, The Hill’s accomplice, projected him because the winner final week, however incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) has not but conceded.
In a 4-3 vote, the state’s prime court docket granted Republicans’ request to make use of the court docket’s uncommon King’s Bench authority and instantly intervene to exclude misdated and undated ballots from the depend. Casey’s marketing campaign intervened to oppose the hassle.
The three dissenters mentioned they’d’ve allowed the decrease courts to deal with Republicans’ challenges in regular course.
The court docket’s order directs that county elections boards statewide, “including the Boards of Elections in Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Philadelphia County, SHALL COMPLY with the prior rulings of this Court in which we have clarified that mail-in and absentee ballots that fail to comply with the requirements of the Pennsylvania Election Code…. SHALL NOT BE COUNTED for purposes of the election held on November 5, 2024.”
Republicans had additionally accused Centre County of counting a number of ballots with invalid or lacking dates, however the county in disputed the notion in court docket filings.
In a concurring opinion, three of the court docket’s seven justices condemned elections officers who voted to depend the ballots with date points.
“I write separately to disabuse local elections officials of the notion that they have the authority to ignore Election Code provisions that they believe are unconstitutional. Only the courts under our charter may declare a statute, or provision thereof, unconstitutional,” wrote Justice Kevin Brobson, joined by Wecht and Mundy.
The three dissenters mentioned the matter hadn’t met the excessive burden for the court docket to intervene now, noting challenges mounted by Republicans and McCormick’s marketing campaign have been expeditiously continuing within the decrease courts.
“I have far more confidence in our courts of common pleas to apply the law than do some of my colleagues,” Justice Christine Donohue, joined by Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justice David McCaffery, wrote in dissent.
Mail ballots in Pennsylvania have been the topic of frequent litigation in recent times, with enforcement of the statutory requirement that voters date the outer envelope changing into a significant battle.
Noting that election officers timestamp mail ballots when they’re obtained, voting rights teams and Democrats have argued the availability is meaningless and likewise violates the state structure’s free and equal elections clause.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket has not definitively resolved the deserves of that constitutional query however had repeatedly indicated it was too near the election to vary the principles.
