A sign directs voters to a ballot drop box outside the Chester County Government Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Capital-Star/Peter Hall)
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick and two GOP groups have filed or are planning lawsuits against four Pennsylvania county boards of elections to enforce the rule that voters must date mail-in ballots to have them counted, according to court filings and a party official.
Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, meanwhile, filed a motion to intervene in another GOP lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to order all 67 county boards of elections to enforce the date rule.
McCormick, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania sued the Philadelphia Board of Elections on Friday to reverse its decision to count more than 600 mail ballots with missing or incorrect dates or signatures in the wrong locations.
“The Board’s baffling decision not to enforce the date requirement and to count noncompliant ballots thus directly contravenes binding Pennsylvania law,” the lawsuit in Philadelphia County court said, noting that the state Supreme Court has previously held the requirement to date the ballots is mandatory and enforceable and rejected subsequent challenges.
Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the state Supreme Court has not ruled on the substance of the matter.
This year, the Commonwealth Court has ruled twice that the date requirement, which numerous court proceedings have established serves no purpose, is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court dismissed the first decision on a technicality and blocked the second, saying that it would not countenance a change in election rules after mail-in voting had already started.
“We agree with both the Commonwealth Court’s ruling and David McCormick’s 2022 position that invalidating misdated and undated ballots disenfranchises Pennsylvania voters over a requirement that is irrelevant in determining a voters’ eligibility,” Donohue said, noting that McCormick argued ballots should not be thrown out over date issues after he lost the GOP primary to Mehmet Oz two years ago.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and we will utilize every legal option to oppose McCormick’s voter suppression tactics and ensure these legal votes are counted,” Donohue said.
McCormick and the GOP have also filed suits in Bucks and Centre counties, RNC Senior Advisor Gates McGavick told the Capital-Star on Friday. A fourth lawsuit was being filed Friday in Montgomery County, he said.
The lawsuits come as the Pennsylvania Department of State prepared for a statutorily required recount in the commonwealth’s U.S. Senate race between McCormick and Casey. Less than 0.5% of the vote separated the candidates, triggering an automatic recount under a 2004 state law.
Pennsylvania prepares for a recount as Casey and McCormick campaigns focus on ballots
McCormick has 48.93% of votes, and Casey has 48.5%, according to unofficial results, a margin of 0.43%. The Department of State estimated that the recount will cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
Although McCormick and Republican Party officials have said there is no path to victory for Casey, McGavick said the GOP is willing to expend legal resources to ensure the law is being followed.
“When you have election officials decide days after the election we’re going to disregard this court ruling … that is the kind of stuff that really damages voter confidence,” McGavick said.
In Centre County, a judge on Friday threw out the GOP challenge to the board of elections’ decision to count three ballots with “date issues.” President Judge Jonathan Grine found that the challenge was required to be filed within two days of the board’s Nov. 7 vote, but the suit was not filed until Thursday.
No action was taken in the Bucks and Philadelphia cases, according to docket entries on Friday afternoon.
The RNC and Pennsylvania Republican Party also filed a petition in state Supreme Court asking it to use its King’s Bench authority to order election officials in all 67 counties to enforce the date requirement. The court had not taken any action in that case Friday afternoon, according to court records.
The question surrounding the validity of mail ballots with missing or incorrect dates has been the subject of court cases in every election since 2020, when Pennsylvania’s Act 77 made absentee voting without an excuse an option for the first time.
Casey has pointed out that McCormick has flipped his position since 2022, when he argued ballots with date issues should not be invalidated when he lost the GOP primary for Senate to Dr. Mehmet Oz.
McCormick’s lawsuit asserted “These ballots were indisputably submitted on time — they were date-stamped upon receipt — and no fraud or irregularity has been alleged,” and that the handwritten date was meaningless and had no bearing on the validity of mail-in ballots.
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