DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania — Courts across Pennsylvania are starting to weigh in on more than a dozen lawsuits tied to the contentious U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Republican challenger David McCormick.
Late Wednesday, the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County denied a petition from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Casey’s campaign to get 2,073 provisional ballots counted in the general election. The ballots were either missing an outer envelope signature or were not enclosed in a secrecy envelope.
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Democrats argued the ballots should have been counted and were not done so because of mistakes made by poll workers and that thereby violated voters’ due process rights and the Help America Vote Act.
Specifically, the lawsuit claimed there was proof that some poll workers did not provide voters with inner secrecy envelopes or failed to instruct voters on how to use them and what was required to make sure their ballots were properly counted. The lawsuit also argued that because voters who wished to cast a provisional ballot must first sign an affidavit on the outermost envelope, they should not be penalized for failing to provide a second signature on the provisional ballot envelope.
“Denying qualified voters the right to have their provisional ballot counted, even when election officials have determined that the voter is eligible, and the voter has signed a ‘written affirmation’ confirming that they are properly registered, id., would violate these federal protections of the right to vote; thus this Court should reverse the decision of the Philadelphia County Board of Elections,” the Democratic petition read.
The Philadelphia County court did not provide any additional detail on the denial.
In Chester County, a court denied a petition from the Republican National Committee and McCormick’s campaign to get 58 provisional ballots thrown out that were missing the signature of the judge of elections, minority inspector, or, in some cases, both. The lawsuit claimed guidance issued on Nov. 7 by the Pennsylvania Department of State that provisional ballots should be counted despite missing signatures by election officials violated state law.
Republicans asked the court to force Chester County to stop counting those ballots but were denied.
In all, there are 18 active lawsuits making their way through Pennsylvania’s court system, asking judges to count or reject ballots.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reiterated a previous ruling that ballots with missing or inaccurate dates written on them should not be counted. The court order specified that Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties must not count those ballots.
The order was seen as a victory for McCormick.
As both sides continue their fight for votes in court, an automatic statewide recount in the contentious Senate race has been underway.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Nov. 7, saying not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead. Despite the call, a statewide recount was triggered because McCormick and Casey were within 0.5 percentage points of each other.
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As of midday Thursday, McCormick was leading in the recount, besting Casey by 16,340 votes.
The final results of the recount are expected on Nov. 27.