Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick and two GOP groups have filed or plan to file lawsuits against four Pennsylvania county boards of elections to enforce a rule that requires voters to date mailed ballots in order to be counted, according to court documents and a party official. counted.
Meanwhile, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey has filed a motion to intervene in another GOP lawsuit that asks the state Supreme Court to order all 67 county boards of elections to enforce the date rule.
McCormick, the Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party sued the Philadelphia Board of Elections on Friday to overturn its decision to count more than 600 absentee ballots with missing or incorrect dates or signatures in the wrong places.
“The Board’s surprising decision not to enforce the dating requirement and to count non-compliant ballots is therefore in direct violation of applicable Pennsylvania law,” the Philadelphia County court filing said, noting that the state Supreme Court has previously held that the requirement to date ballots voting is mandatory and enforceable and rejected subsequent complaints.
Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the state Supreme Court had not ruled on the merits of the case.
This year, the Commonwealth Court twice ruled that the date requirement, recognized in numerous court proceedings, made no sense and was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court dismissed first decision for technical reasons and he blocked the second onestating that it will not agree to change the electoral law after the start of postal voting.
“We agree with both the Commonwealth Court’s ruling and David McCormick’s 2022 position that invalidation of mis-dated and undated ballots disenfranchises Pennsylvania voters based on a requirement that is irrelevant to determining a voter’s eligibility ” Donohue said, noting that McCormick had argued that ballots should not be thrown out over time-barred issues after he lost the GOP primary to Mehmet Oz two years ago.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and we will pursue every legal opportunity to oppose McCormick’s voter suppression tactics and ensure those legal votes are counted,” Donohue said.
McCormick and the Republican Party have also filed lawsuits in Bucks and Center counties, RNC senior counsel Gates McGavick told the Capital-Star on Friday. He added that a fourth lawsuit was filed in Montgomery County on Friday.
The lawsuits come as the Pennsylvania Department of State prepared for a statutorily required recount of votes in the U.S. Senate race between McCormick and Casey. The candidates were separated by less than 0.5% of the vote, triggering an automatic recount under 2004 state law.
Pennsylvania prepares for recount as Casey and McCormick campaigns focus on mail-in ballots
McCormick has 48.93% of the vote and Casey has 48.5%, according to unofficial results, a 0.43% lead. The State Department estimated the recount would cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
Although McCormick and GOP officials have said Casey has no path to victory, McGavick said the GOP is willing to pass legislative measures to ensure compliance with the law.
“When election officials decide days after the election, we will disregard the court’s ruling … these are the things that really destroy voter confidence,” McGavick said.
On Friday in Center County, a judge dismissed a GOP challenge to the board of elections’ decision to count three ballots because of “dating issues.” Chief Justice Jonathan Grine said the lawsuit must be filed within two days of the commission’s Nov. 7 vote, but the lawsuit wasn’t filed until Thursday.
Docket entries from Friday afternoon show no action was taken in the Bucks and Philadelphia cases.
The RNC Republican Party and the Pennsylvania Republican Party also filed a brief with the state Supreme Court asking it to operate the King’s Bench’s authority to order election officials in all 67 counties to enforce the date requirement. Court records show the court took no action in the case as of Friday afternoon.
The issue of the validity of absentee ballots with missing or incorrect dates has been the subject of court cases in every election since 2020, when Pennsylvania’s Act 77 first allowed no-excuse absentee voting.
Casey pointed out that McCormick has changed his position since 2022, when he argued that ballots with date issues should not be invalidated when he lost the GOP Senate primary to Dr. Mehmet Oz.
McCormick’s lawsuit claimed that “the ballots were unquestionably timely delivered – dated upon receipt – and no fraud or irregularity was alleged” and that the handwritten date was irrelevant and had no impact on the validity of mailed ballots.
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