Centre County primary election results on hold after legal challenge filed by Republicans
Centre County put on hold its certification of the primary election results after an appeal filed Tuesday by Republicans challenged the legitimacy of dozens of mail-in ballots.
Centre County Republican Committee Chair Michelle Schellberg’s filing alleged 95 mail-in ballots were counted improperly by the county’s board of elections because they were not dated correctly, violating Pennsylvania law.
State Sen. Cris Dush, R-Brookville, supported the appeal and said Wednesday that the number of ballots in dispute is not of concern. Instead, he said it’s about the “principle of the matter.”
“At some point, it will matter,” Dush said. “Every election matters, whether it’s a school board or any other.”
He later added: “We can’t allow the misapplication of the processes established by law because if we do that creates precedent.”
Fifty-seven ballots did not include the year, 23 were dated incorrectly, 13 were missing the day or month and two had an unknown date error.
The elections board — made up of the county’s three commissioners, two Democrats and one Republican — voted unanimously in April to accept each of the ballots.
By counting those ballots and similar votes in the future, attorney Louis Glantz wrote the board would “deprive future lawful Pennsylvania voters from having their vote count against only those who properly voted.”
The filing, which was supported by 18 other Centre County voters, asked that the 2024 results not be certified and that improper mail-in ballots be rejected in all future elections.
Centre County Judge Julia Rater was assigned to preside over the case. A hearing was scheduled for May 16.
Centre County Democratic Committee Chair Margie Swoboda said her party will closely follow the litigation, adding “we can’t make this any harder for people to vote.”
She also praised the state’s top election official and Centre County Elections and Voter Registration Director Beth Lechman for their handling of the election.
“It should be not this hard for someone to vote if they mess up a date,” Swoboda said. “That’s where we are coming from. There’s so many safeguards that are put in by the Centre County elections office, that are put in by the Department of State to make sure those people that get those absentee or mail-in ballots are registered voters.”
A federal appeals court panel found in March that a requirement for Pennsylvania voters to put accurate handwritten dates on the outside envelopes of their mail-in ballots does not run afoul of a civil rights law.
A divided 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to uphold enforcement of the required date on return envelopes, a technical mandate that caused thousands of votes to be declared invalid in the 2022 election.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which helped represent groups and voters who challenged the date mandate, told the Associated Press the ruling could mean thousands of votes won’t be counted over what it believes is a meaningless error.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats have been far more likely to vote by mail than Republicans under an expansion of mail-in ballots enacted in 2019.
