The most important battleground state, Pennsylvania holds its 2024 primary election April 23. (Getty Images)
Washington County’s Board of Elections allegedly mishandled mail-in ballots during the April primary and withheld information from 259 voters, leaving them unable to correct the errors before Election Day, according to a lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and local advocacy groups Monday.
“The board’s decision to conceal the true status of returned mail ballots with minor but disqualifying errors resulted in needless disenfranchisement,” ACLU-PA legal director Witold Walczak said. “No government official or agency should knowingly disenfranchise its voters.”
The ballots, which were from both Republican and Democratic voters, were not counted in the April primary, according to the lawsuit. Several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are voters who say their ballots were rejected for errors on the ballot’s outer “declaration” envelope, such as for writing an “incomplete date,” or failing to sign and date the envelope in the correct place.