Counties in Pennsylvania are directed to not count illegal ballots, the state’s top court said in a ruling issued Monday.
The ruling ordered county election boards, listing Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties specifically, to only count legal ballots that comply with the state’s election code. It isn’t the first time this election cycle that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled only ballots in compliance with the law can be counted.
These counties were ordered to not count illegal ballots after election officials voted to count ballots missing dates — in other words, ballots that did not comply with requirements set out in the state law.
The court order specifically singled out the date issue, quoting a prior ruling that said “The Election Code commands absentee and mail-in electors to date the declaration that appears upon ballot return envelopes, and failure to comply with that command renders a ballot invalid as a matter of Pennsylvania law.”
The ruling comes amid a close Senate race where Republican challenger Dave McCormick unseated incumbent Sen. Bob Casey. The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Nov. 7. Casey has not conceded the race. An automatic recount of the race was triggered because the margin of victory was smaller than 0.5%.