Article Summary –
A Pennsylvania appeals court ruled that Washington County violated state law by not informing voters if their mail-in ballots were rejected during April’s primary. The 2-1 decision mandates that voters be notified of such rejections and allowed to vote provisionally. This decision follows a lawsuit by the local NAACP, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and affected voters, who claimed the county’s policy violated their constitutional rights.
The ruling comes after election workers in the Republican-controlled county refused to tell voters whether their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary election.
HARRISBURG — A Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to inform voters if their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
This case is among several election-related lawsuits in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state where November’s contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be tight.
Through a 2-1 decision, the statewide Commonwealth Court panel upheld a Washington County judge’s order from last month.
The order requires county employees to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected due to errors, such as a missing signature or date, giving the voter a chance to challenge the decision.
Washington County must also allow these voters to cast a provisional ballot.
In the 19-page majority opinion, Judge Michael Wojcik wrote that the county’s policy “emasculates” the law’s guarantees allowing voters to protest ballot rejection and use the “statutory failsafe” of a provisional ballot.
The local NAACP branch, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and seven voters whose ballots were rejected in the April 23 primary sued the county, accusing it of violating voters’ constitutional due process rights by deliberately concealing whether their ballot was counted.
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