FILE - An Allegheny County worker processes mail-in and absentee ballots in Pittsburgh, April 18, 2024. At rallies and in social media posts, former President Donald Trump has been trying to assure Republican voters that casting ballots by mail and other forms of early voting are “all good options.” (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - An Allegheny County worker processes mail-in and absentee ballots in Pittsburgh, April 18, 2024. At rallies and in social media posts, former President Donald Trump has been trying to assure Republican voters that casting ballots by mail and other forms of early voting are “all good options.” (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Update:
On Friday, Judge Julia Rater for the Court of Common Pleas in Centre County dismissed a case that sought to throw out improperly dated mail-in ballots because the case was not properly filed.
The court order allows Centre County to move forward with certifying its election results, pending a possible appeal by the petitioners.
Centre County’s Republican Party Chair Michelle Schellberg, who challenged the county’s certification along with 17 other voters, was not immediately available for comment. Neither was her attorney nor Sen. Cris Dush (R-Jefferson), who represents part of Centre County and who joined the challenge.
The petitioners have a 10-day window to appeal, according to Stacey Witalec, communications director for the state court system.
Centre County’s Board of Commissioners will meet this coming Tuesday at 2 p.m. to vote on whether to certify the county’s election results.
All other counties certified their results on May 13.
The Department of State, which also submitted arguments to the court to dismiss the petition, said it expects to certify statewide results next week.
Original story:
Centre County is the last county in the state to certify results, due to an election challenge.
The process may be a lesson for how well the Commonwealth will handle similar requests this fall, when elected officials are waiting to take office and a new federal law requires certification.
State lawmakers begin their terms on December 1. Members of the U.S. Congress begin on January 3. Both bodies can operate even if some races are not finalized.
That’s different for presidential results. Federal laws were updated in response to strategies former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to use to keep him in power despite losing the 2020 election. As a result, states must now certify results for the presidential election six days before the Electoral College meets. That’s on December 11 this year, or 36 days after the election.
Judge Julia Rater, who has less than a year’s experience on the bench, tentatively set a deadline for her ruling on Friday, 31 days after the primary election.
Whatever she rules, any party to the case can appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, which would further delay certification.
In a statement unrelated to this case, Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions at the Department of State, Jonathan Marks, said he was not concerned about the timeline for certification this fall. Still, the department will monitor cases and “take whatever action is appropriate,” Marks said.
In the Centre County case, the Department of State asked the court to accept an amicus brief, which argues the case should be dismissed. That would allow the county, and then the state, to proceed with finalizing election results.
Centre County’s Republican Party Chair Michelle Schellberg challenged certification on May 7. Seventeen other county voters and state Senator Cris Dush, who represents part of the county, asked the court to reverse a decision county commissioners made to accept 95 mail-in ballots.
Court filings show 57 were missing the last two digits of the year on the return envelope, 23 reflected the wrong date, 13 were missing either the day or the month of the date and two were accidentally flagged by staff and should have been approved.
Based on Pennsylvania Supreme Court and U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rulings, Schellberg argues Centre County illegally accepted the ballots. The filing asks the judge to remove the votes on the ballots from the vote totals before certification, to hold that accepting them was illegal, and to prevent the county from doing the same thing in the fall.
The county argues it followed the rules, despite labeling the ballots as being misdated.
Both the county and the Department of State argue Schellberg’s filling came too late and had other technical flaws, so it should be dismissed. The state did not make any argument about Centre County’s decision to accept the mail-in ballots.
In a how-to article about voting by mail, the Department of State website does warn voters that if they put the wrong date on the ballot, their votes won’t count.
Those are being held separately from other ballots but are already removed from their ballot envelopes and co-mingled, so they can either be rejected as a batch or accepted as a batch depending on the court’s decision.
No races in the county are within 95 votes, and neither are any statewide races.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
