Pennsylvania election officials cannot count mail-in ballots that were not verified by Nov. 9, regardless of an instruction given to them by Commonwealth Secretary Kathy Boockvar, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled Thursday.
The decision by President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt voids a Nov. 1 directive Boockvar issued to election officials in all 67 counties. In that directive, Boockvar said those officials had until Nov. 12 to verify the identities of the voters who cast mail-in ballots.
In a petition filed with the court last week, President Donald Trump’s campaign challenged Boockvar’s directive, insisting that election laws barred the counting of any ballots which had not received identification verification by Nov. 9.
Leavitt agreed.
She found that Boockvar “lacked statutory authority” to extend a deadline that is set in the state Election Code.
Ballots not verified by Nov. 9 have been segregated and not counted under a temporary injunction Leavitt’s court issued last week.
Her decision could be appealed to the state Supreme Court. The Associated Press reports the court order affects a portion of the roughly 10,000 ballots that arrived within a three-day period after polls closed Nov. 3. Those late-arriving ballots have been segregated, state officials have said.
It’s unknown how many ballots are affected by the ruling.
https://www.pennlive.com/elections/2020/11...
Posted By: Steve Williams
Saturday, November 14th 2020 at 10:19AM
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