[ad_1]
The scramble to figure out which Pennsylvania mail-in ballots to count and cancel based on handwritten dates will continue Saturday.
The state Supreme Court’s order Tuesday — which many had previously hoped would settle the issue for this election — ordered counties to cancel mail-in ballots that were lost on those days, including in areas where the voter chooses the election day.
But the ruling has since sparked confusion among election officials about what constitutes a wrong day and calls for a new lawsuit from advocates who say the election cancellation is what it is. which threatens to disenfranchise thousands of voters.
On Saturday, the Supreme Court suddenly issued an additional order clarifying its interpretation: Mail ballots in this election will be invalidated if the handwritten dates fall before September 19, 2022, or after or November 8th (Election Day), and Absentee ballots will be rejected if cast before August 30th, 2022 or after November 8th.
Absentee ballots are similar to mail ballots, but under state law “absentee ballots” are for voters who do not show up at their polling places on Election Day, but those who ” vote by mail” for someone else choosing to vote by mail. Sept. 19 marks the start of the state’s 50-day mail-in voting window, when counties can begin printing and submitting mail-in and absentee ballots. Councils do the same thing with absentee ballots and send ballots in and out at the same time.
The court’s special ruling on absentee ballots results from combining those ballots with a different type of absentee ballot — those sent to military and overseas voters, known as UOCAVA for the state law that governs them — they will be sent out 70 days in advance. Election Day is August 30 this year.
Saturday’s order provides a range of dates for concerned counties to decide on their own, or a date without a court order. The order was issued for the court, not in the name of the special judges.
The order means that the votes are counted as long as there are days within the specified range – whether it’s a day after the ballot is returned or before the ballot is printed.
Many attorneys said the legal challenge could be tougher as Democrats and voting-rights groups say the federal requirement is a technicality and should not be used to determine the fairness of the election. Allowing votes for this type of technology, they say, is a violation of federal civil rights law. A series of courts have considered that argument, including the state Supreme Court, in its Tuesday order that deadlocked 3-3.
“While we will continue to carefully follow the orders of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, today’s additional order supports what I have always said: a handwritten date is not meaningful, ” said Seth Bluestein, the only Republican on Philadelphia’s board of commissioners. “What is important is that the declaration on the ballot envelope is signed between the time the ballots are cast and Election Day.”
On Friday night, a coalition of election organizations used that argument in a new lawsuit they filed in federal court seeking to force Pennsylvania’s legislature to agree to All mail ballots received on time regardless of date were handwritten.
Groups are pushing to eliminate ballots based on handwritten dates — the date is not used for anything — and will turn out thousands of eligible voters, especially in communities of color.
“Failure to count votes based on paperwork errors will be rejected … by setting up another roadblock to prevent them from voting and having their votes counted,” he said. the lawsuit was filed in West Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The parties will ask the court to find that “dismissing mail ballots submitted in a timely manner based on a missing date or dates” violates the so-called Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act. They are asking the court to bar counties from denying absentee or incorrectly dated ballots and to bar counties or the state from validating election results if those ballots include in those doors.
The lawsuit was filed by the Pennsylvania NAACP; Women’s Suffrage League of Pennsylvania; The people of Philadelphia were organized to know, to strengthen and to rebuild; Pennsylvania common law; Black Political Empowerment Initiative; and Build the Pennsylvania Highway. The ACLU of Pennsylvania represents them.
Whether to approve or reject the no-date ballots has been the subject of a retrial for the past two years. While the fight for votes to be counted or nullified involves questions of law and voting rights, it is also a political issue, especially as Democrats use mail-in ballots that have more rate the Republicans in Pennsylvania. Political and legal battles have followed every election since 2020.
A half-dozen state and federal courts – at every level from the district courts to the US Supreme Court – have issued controversial decisions in response to court challenges by parties that two sides of the political divide.
Previous lawsuits focused on the state law’s requirement that voters sign and date their ballots. A new wave of litigation brought the civil rights debate to the fore this year. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia agreed with that argument, prompting the state court to follow that logic and order mail ballots not counted on May 1.
But the federal court’s ruling was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court last month, prompting a challenge, led by the Republican National Committee, on Tuesday to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order to two days. a invalidated ballots must be voided.
[ad_2]
Source link
