Pennsylvania Judge Ellen Ceisler, a Democrat, has dismissed a case about how counties should handle illegally marked mail-in ballots, saying the Commonwealth Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over mail-in ballot claims against 67 individual county boards of elections. Republican plaintiffs seeking to stop counties from curing mail-in ballots would have to litigate in each individual county or appeal the jurisdiction issue to a higher court.
The case stems from a passionate statewide dispute over how counties should handle certain mail-in ballots.
In Pennsylvania, state law requires voters to sign and date the outer envelope of their mail-in ballot for it to be counted. Still, many mail-in ballots are returned to the county without a signature or proper date, meaning the ballots are improper and cannot be counted according to state election code.
But that rule was hotly contested in court just before the 2022 midterm election. Democrats called for the counting of illegal ballots. Republicans said the election code should prevail and that wrongly marked mail-in ballots should not be counted.
Then-acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman issued guidance directing all counties to include undated ballots in their official returns for the Nov. 8 election.
In her decision this week, Ceisler said the secretary of state does not have authority over this matter for individual counties.
The State Supreme Court ordered county boards of elections to refrain from counting any undated or incorrectly dated absentee and mail-in ballots for the Nov. 8 election, but to segregate and preserve these ballots.
Some counties followed the state Supreme Court directive, other counties began reaching out to voters with improper envelopes and inviting them to go to the county office and correct the problem so their ballot would count.
Republicans argued this is canvassing ballots early. By law, counties must keep ballots secure until 7 a.m. on Election Day when they can start counting mail-in ballots.
A petition from a host of Republican entities was filed in Commonwealth Court, naming Pennsylvania’s individual county boards of elections. The petition was brought by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, and some individual Republicans. The RNC is no longer a party in the case according to Thomas King III, attorney for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.
Republicans asked the court to declare that boards of elections may not take it upon themselves to adopt and implement ballot cure procedures because that is the role of the General Assembly.
“Implementation of such procedures directly violates the Election Code’s various pre-canvassing and provisional ballot provisions; that the furnishing of voters’ personally identifying information to political party representatives, candidates, and/or special interest groups violates voters’ constitutional right to informational privacy,” Republicans argue in court papers. “The acting secretary has issued guidance directing the county boards to engage in pre-canvass activities under the guise of making ‘administrative determinations’ and statements encouraging the boards to contact voters whose defective ballots have been cancelled due to errors on the ballots’ outer envelopes so they may have the opportunity to have their votes count.”
It is illegal, Republicans say, because absentee and mail-in ballots must be kept in sealed or locked containers until Election Day by law, and county boards are prohibited from doing anything else with the ballots until Election Day.
“We’re analyzing the decision,” King told The Epoch Times. “We have a right to appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Whether we will or not, I don’t know.”
The Epoch Times requested comment from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.