GOP Has Still Refused To Certify PA Primary Election In 4 Counties

HARRISBURG, PA — There are now four counties around Pennsylvania where Republican officials have refused to certify primary election results, as mail-in ballot-related controversies remain tied up in the courts ahead of the fall's general election.

Berks, Fayette, and Lancaster counties have been joined by a fourth county, Butler, in declining to certify results over mail-in ballot controversies, according to NBC Philadelphia. Specifically, the Republican-led counties don't want to count mail-in ballots that do not have handwritten dates on the envelopes.

While these ballots would not change the results of the primary election, it could set a legal precedent that would impact future elections. It's particularly of note in Pennsylvania, which has seen Presidential and U.S. Senate races decided by razor thin margins in recent years.

Gov. Tom Wolf's adminstration and the Pennsylvania Department of State have filed a lawsuit against all three counties in an attempt to force them to certify the results and send them to the state.

"Their duty to send the Acting Secretary those returns is a ministerial and non-discretionary act, and there is no longer doubt that the ballots the county boards refuse to include—timely received absentee and mail-in ballots cast by qualified voters who neglected to write a date on the declaration printed on the ballot’s return envelope—were lawfully cast and must be included in the certified returns," the lawsuit states.

The matter of undated envelopes even impacted the Republican Senate primary, as Mehmet Oz and David McCormick's race went to an official recount. The U.S. Supreme Court, which now holds a firm Republican majority, said that these ballots must be counted.

The Republican-led quartet of counties in the suit were adamant they were in the right.

“We followed the law,” Leslie Osche, chair of Butler County's Board of Commissioners, told the Associated Press.

There is no timeline for a resolution of the case, although it deadlines for candidates in these counties to be added to or removed from the ballots is approaching.

It's just the latest bit of chaos related to mail-in ballots. Act 77, which allows no-excuse mail-in voting, was upheld as constituional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week.