'''Pennsylvania ballot fight could drag on long after Election Day; thousands of votes in limbo
If Pennsylvania Senate race is close, courts could decide whether officials can count key votes'''
Published November 8, 2022 12:00pm EST
The legal fight in Pennsylvania over mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates could drag on for weeks after Election Day, forcing courts to make the final decision on whether thousands of votes can be counted.
The battle is playing out in both in state and federal court against the backdrop of a very close U.S. Senate race that may decide control of the upper chamber. On one side are Democrat officials and activist groups who want to allow mail-in votes to count despite "minor errors." On the other are state, local and national Republican committees insisting on strict adherence to state law on how to fill out these ballots.
"Past experience tells us these kinds of things can drag on for what seems like an eternity," Pennsylvania Republican Party general counsel Tom King told Fox News Digital.
"What we have going on is a mad scramble as we speak," King added.
The most high-profile ongoing litigation is a federal lawsuit from the NAACP and other groups – represented by the ACLU – that seeks to force officials to count mail ballots with incorrect or missing dates, despite a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling mandating they be sequestered. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is running against Republican Mehmet Oz, later filed a similar federal suit.
Information already released by major metropolitan areas indicates the number of ballots that fall into those categories could be significant. Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, and Philadelphia County released lists of voters with date-related issues on their ballots, aiming to give those voters a chance to fix them. In Philadelphia, the number was over 2,300, and in Allegheny County it was about 1,000.
Those two counties make up just over one-fifth of Pennsylvania's population. Assuming similar rates of ballot issues elsewhere, the total number of deficient ballots could potentially exceed 10,000 and approach 15,000 or more.
ACLU lawyers argue that disqualifying votes based on "minor errors" like incorrect or missing dates runs afoul of the Civil Rights Act. The law, they say, makes it illegal not to count votes based on paperwork mistakes "not material" to whether a voter is eligible.
"There's a certain amount of common sense here that should say these votes should count," R Street Institute resident elections fellow Matthew Germer told Fox News Digital. "If a ballot arrives in advance of Election Day, it's pretty clear to me at least that that ballot should be counted."
Germer said it is possible court cases related to Pennsylvania's elections continue for days or weeks after Election Day, and could potentially make it to the Supreme Court. However, he argued, that is not necessarily a bad thing – and that it is likely the courts will come to a conclusion well before the results legally must be certified.
"I would expect the first kind of ruling within a week. And then if there are any appeals that move forward from there, that it jumps to the top of the docket for almost any court that's going to be handling it," Germer said.
Germer also noted that if the state's U.S. Senate race between Fetterman and Oz is not close, the sequestered mail ballots may not matter at all.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pennsylvania-mail-ballot-legal-fight-drag-long-after-election-day-thousands-votes-iimbo