Republicans requested the Pennsylvania Supreme Courtroom on Thursday to once more guarantee mail ballots with a lacking or improper date should not counted on this yr’s election, accusing a number of counties of ignoring the courtroom’s instructions.
Within the lead-up to Election Day, the state’s high courtroom issued a number of orders declaring the handwritten date requirement have to be enforced, but it surely has not addressed claims from voting rights teams that the requirement violates the Pennsylvania Structure’s free and equal elections clause.
A number of county boards this week moved ahead with counting ballots with date issues, resulting in a brand new spherical of postelection litigation over the hotly contested concern.
At stake are at the least a whole lot of ballots, which might play a large function because the shut contest between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and challenger David McCormick heads to an computerized recount. McCormick leads by roughly 25,000 votes.
McCormick declared victory after The Related Press projected him because the winner and has been in Washington this week for freshmen orientation. Choice Desk HQ, The Hill’s associate, has not referred to as the race.
The Republican Nationwide Committee (RNC) and its state arm on Thursday requested the Pennsylvania Supreme Courtroom to make use of its King Bench energy to right away take up the date requirement concern and reaffirm no county can rely the challenged ballots — particularly taking goal at Philadelphia, Bucks County and Centre County.
“[V]arious county boards are seeking to alter the rules of the election at the thirteenth hour,” Republicans wrote in its software. “By counting undated and misdated mail ballots for the 2024 General Election, they are disobeying this Court’s commands many times over. At best, they are confused; at worst, they are openly defying the authority of this Court.”
McCormick was not a part of the request, however he has joined the celebration in its lawsuit filed in a trial courtroom difficult Bucks County’s resolution to rely ballots with improper or lacking dates.
Casey’s marketing campaign famous that McCormick supported counting ballots with date points throughout his first Senate run when his main headed to a recount in 2022.
“David McCormick’s hypocritical reversal on undated mail ballots is further proof of his determination to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters while counties continue to count votes in this razor-thin election. Senator Casey’s priority continues to be making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard as our democratic process unfolds,” mentioned Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s marketing campaign supervisor, in an announcement.
Matt Gruda, McCormick’s marketing campaign supervisor, has in the meantime accused Casey of “trying to illegally count UNREGISTERED voters” as his marketing campaign challenges rejections of sure provisional ballots.
Republicans’ lawsuits come after a number of counties this week met to adjudicate poll points.
Bucks County, a crucial space for each campaigns that’s situated north of Philadelphia, on Tuesday voted 2-1 alongside celebration traces to rely simply over 400 well timed ballots with date points.
Bob Harvie, a Democrat who serves because the county commissioner board’s vice-chair, mentioned it was a “pretty stupid thing” to not rely them, because the mail ballots are timestamped when acquired.
“We’re going to get sued either way; I’d rather be on the side of counting ballots than not counting them,” Harvie mentioned at Tuesday’s assembly.
Democrat Diane Ellis-Marseglia, the board’s chair, mentioned, “I Can’t vote to reject them. I just can’t.”
Republican commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, who serves as secretary, voted in opposition to counting the ballots.
An analogous fallout occurred on Wednesday at a gathering of the Philadelphia Metropolis Commissioners, which additionally voted 2-1 alongside celebration traces to rely a whole lot of ballots with date points.
The brand new instances are the newest in what has been a closely litigated election in Pennsylvania.
McCormick final week filed two emergency motions associated to provisional poll challenges, however a choose denied one and the candidate later withdrew the opposite.
