Bucks County ordered to extend on-demand voting until Friday after Trump lawsuitChris Ullery Bucks County Courier Times Oct. 30 2024
Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Trauger has ordered the Bucks County Board of Elections to extend its on-demand mail-in ballot deadline until "the close of business" on Friday, Nov. 1.The Wednesday afternoon ruling stems from a lawsuit filed several hours earlier by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and other state and national GOP groupsclaiming Bucks County illegally turned away voters.
The filing with the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, posted online late Wednesday morning, alleges that the county violated the state’s election laws by not allowing some voters to use the “on-demand mail-ballot” option in the final hours of the mail-in ballot application at 5 p.m. Oct. 29. Trump and his allies are asking to extend the mail ballot registration window until the close of business today.
On-demand mail voting in Pennsylvania is a process where a registered voter can apply for, complete and return a mail ballot in one stop, rather than waiting for their ballot to arrive by mail and then returning it later.
The window for on-demand voting is only open between when ballots are available until the application deadline, and a surge of participation has caused hours-long waits in multiple counties, including Bucks, over at least the last week. The lawsuit states that election offices in BucksCounty turned away voters “without allowing the opportunity to even submit their applications” and “precluded them from voting by mail, as is their right under the Election Code.”
“In other words, by appearing at one of the Board's offices during posted operating hours and by the application deadlineto exercise their On Demand Mailin-Ballot Option, many of Plaintiffs' members and supporters effectively attempted to apply for a mail in ballot by the application deadline but the Board refused to process the same,” attorney Walter Zimolong, based in Delaware County, wrote in the court documents.
Among the filings are declarations from three Bucks County voters who said they arrived at one ofthree Bucks County election offices between 2:40 p.m. and 3:25 p.m., just hours before the mail-in application deadline, and were “told by county officials I would not be able to request, receive, vote, and submit a mailed-in ballotand that I would have to return on a different day.”Trump’s campaign is joined in the suit by the Republican National Committee, Republican Party of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick and his campaign.
What has Bucks County said?
Bucks County officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon and did not comment on initial claims at a Tuesday night rally in Allentown by RNC Chairman Micheal Whatley and McCormick.
The county did post from its account on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday that some voters were “briefly” told they couldn’t be accommodated for on-demand voting, but added that those voters “were given the opportunity to submit mail-in ballot applications” that same day.
A follow-up post in that thread said that the ballots would either be mailed to those voters or they could pick them up later this week.
Did the state require lines to remain open?
A repeated refrain in the lawsuit is that voters were under the impression that they had the right to both request and receive or “cast” their mail by the Tuesday deadline.
The lawsuit features another X post on the Pennsylvania Department of State account, saying thatPennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt “expressly advised voters” that being in line before the deadline “should be permitted to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot.”The post referenced in the lawsuit doesn’t specifically say that voters would receive a ballot.
“If you are in line at a county elections office before tonight at 5 p.m. to apply for your mail-in ballot, counties must give you an opportunity to do so," the post read. "Our team continues to work with all counties to ensure every single eligible voter who wants to vote by mail ballot is able to.”
Under state law, voters who are in line at polling places on Election Day before polls close at 8 p.m. can’t be turned away, but that may not be a legal requirement for the on-demand voting option.
A slate of Republican lawmakers from Bucks County introduced a bill Tuesday that would treat on-demand mail ballot lines the same as lines on Election Day after multiple days of reported long lines and claims that voters were previously "turned away."
https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/30/donald-trump-bucks-county-lawsuit-to-extend-mail-ballot-deadline-on-demand-early-voting-pa/75943221007/