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At least three Pennsylvania counties are accepting and counting mail ballots from last week’s election that lack a proper date on the envelope, prompting a new legal clash in a long-running disagreement over how to handle these ballots.
The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the state Supreme Court for an immediate ruling on the issue.
Counties are in the last stage of counting their ballots and finalizing their original election results as they prepare for a recount in the U.S. Senate race starting next week. What the counties do with ballots that are undated or that have an incorrect date is a particular concern because of how close that race is. As of 4 p.m. Friday, fewer than 23,000 votes separated Republican Dave McCormick and incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, according to results from the Department of State’s website.
And the two campaigns are taking an active role in the dispute over which ballots should be counted.
The GOP lawsuit names Philadelphia, Bucks, and Centre counties as having opted to count the undated and misdated ballots. Centre County Administrator John Franek said that the county did not count any undated ballots but that officials counted three challenged ballots that had issues with how the date was filled out.
At least one other county, Montgomery, has also confirmed it is counting them, after its board of elections voted 2-1 to approve the move Thursday.
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