The Alleghany County Board of Elections has voted to count an additional 2,349 ballots although they do not have a date on the out envelope. Pennsylvania law states that the ballot mailing envelope “shall contain the date” but these dateless ballots will undergo additional analysis to be sure they are eligible.
The Daily Wire reports:
“The ballots, which have not been opened, all arrived on or before Election Day, as they are stamped with a date when they’re received, according to Elections employees,” TribLIVE.com reported. “The Board of Elections, made up of Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Councilman Sam DeMarco and Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, voted 2 to 1 to count those votes after a brief discussion. DeMarco voted against the motion.”
Allegheny County solicitor Andrew Szefi said, “They applied on time, received their ballots, voted their ballots, returned them on time with their signature, their printed name, their address — the only thing they’re missing is their date. They were received timely, and our … ballot sorting machine imprints a date received on each envelope as they’re scanned.”
“We’ve taken a hard look at this,” Szefi added. “The legal principle at issue here is the Elections Code should always be construed so as to favor enfranchisement over disenfranchisement. What we have here is essentially a technicality that we don’t want voters to get disenfranchised with.”
David Voye, the Allegheny County Elections Division manager, said, “Right now, we are doing a comparison of any spoiled or surrendered ballots at the polling locations to make sure they didn’t surrender their correct ballot and vote at the polls. So we want to make sure we do that prior to counting the 7,000.”
News outlets have called the Keystone State for Joe Biden, making him President-elect. However, the Trump team has filed multiple lawsuits in the state regarding voter observation and ballot counting discrepancies.
