{"id":2240167,"date":"2024-05-08T14:06:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T18:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-state-department-told-voters-to-cast-cured-ballots-against-county-rules-filing-alleges\/"},"modified":"2024-05-08T14:12:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T18:12:25","slug":"pennsylvania-state-department-told-voters-to-cast-cured-ballots-against-county-rules-filing-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-state-department-told-voters-to-cast-cured-ballots-against-county-rules-filing-alleges\/","title":{"rendered":"Filing alleges PA State Dept. advised voters to submit &#8216;cured&#8217; ballots, violating county rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpennsylvania-state-department-told-voters-to-cast-cured-ballots-against-county-rules-filing-alleges%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2240167&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In Pennsylvania, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wisconsin-republicans-introduce-resolution-to-impeach-top-elections-administrator\/\" title=\"Wisconsin GOP proposes resolution to impeach elections chief.\">legal \u2063battle ensues<\/a> as \u2063two voters\u200b seek court action to \u2063allow corrected \u200dmail-in \u2064ballots. The Republican National Committee intervenes, alleging the State Department&#8217;s interference and Butler County&#8217;s refusal to accept revised ballots. The issue revolves around deficient secrecy envelopes on\u2062 ballots, highlighting the complexities of ballot curing \u200dpolicies and legal requirements in the electoral process.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>After the Pennsylvania State Department allegedly instructed voters who cast invalid mail ballots to vote a second time via provisional ballot, two voters are trying to use the courts as a cudgel to force Butler County to accept the new \u201ccured\u201d ballots, according to a Tuesday filing by the Republican National Committee (RNC), which seeks to intervene in the court battle.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the Pennsylvania GOP, the RNC is <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/Pennsylvania_Lawsuit_Filing_1715088324.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asking<\/a> to intervene as a respondent in the case. The two voters seek to force Butler County to allow them and others to \u201ccure their mail-in ballots, which they admit were defective under existing Pennsylvania law,\u201d according to the filing. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1416659592\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f9bbae75ed05bf18d819d640dd7e628a fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f9bbae75ed05bf18d819d640dd7e628a\"><\/div>\n<p>The petitioners, who are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.977rocks.com\/voters-sue-butler-county-after-provisional-ballots-not-counted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">represented<\/a> by the ACLU, sued Butler County after the county rejected their mail-in ballots for lacking the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rnc-pa-gop-fight-against-dems-attempt-to-circumvent-voter-law-in-crucial-swing-state\/\" title=\"RNC and PA GOP Battle Dems to Uphold Voter Laws in Swing State\">required secrecy envelope<\/a> and did not accept their provisional ballots. State law <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vote.pa.gov\/Voting-in-PA\/Pages\/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requires<\/a> the secrecy envelopes for a ballot to be counted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnowing this, the Department of State has taken it upon itself to unilaterally reach out to voters whose mail-in ballots have been rejected due to a perceived lack of a secrecy envelope and encourage them to cure such ballots by appearing in person and voting provisionally,\u201d the RNC alleges. <\/p>\n<p>Butler County rejected the \u201cillegitimate\u201d provisional ballots, according to the filing. <\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in <em>Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar <\/em>in 2020 that mail-in ballots lacking the secrecy envelope are invalid. This decision allowed counties to cure \u201ccertain deficiencies in their mail-in ballots if they are so inclined\u201d but, as the filing summarized, \u201cno court \u2026 can <em>require <\/em>them to do so.\u201d Only the state legislature can create such a requirement via legislation, the RNC argues.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-cfbff9d802781ec2bbef36c2da9c420f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-cfbff9d802781ec2bbef36c2da9c420f\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cYet this is exactly what Petitioners seek here: a Court Order which requires the Board to permit voters to cure materially defective mail-in ballots when the Board has already considered the issue, created a policy governing what defects it will permit to be cured, and has determined that the lack of a secrecy envelope is not something which can be cured,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n<p>A copy of Butler County\u2019s ballot curing policy attached to the filing stipulates that the county elections bureau \u201cshall not send the Ballot back to the Voter or <em>issue the Voter a new Ballot<\/em> due\u00a0to [a] Deficiency\u201d in the mailed ballot (emphasis added).<\/p>\n<p>The filing argues that petitioners want to force the Butler County Board \u201cto cure legally deficient ballots by counting unauthorized provisional ballots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said it\u2019s \u201cplain and simple\u201d that \u201cButler County does not allow ballot curing for ballots missing the required secrecy envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3e5b8f58b72d52ef164222cf8d5b0dc7 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3e5b8f58b72d52ef164222cf8d5b0dc7\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIf a vote is not legally cast, it should not be counted,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania State Department has a history of ignoring election laws.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, after the Supreme Court tossed out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-to-hear-appeal-over-ky-abortion-law\/\" title=\"SCOTUS to hear appeal over Ky. abortion law\">lower court ruling<\/a> that had wrongfully allowed undated mail-in ballots to be counted, then-Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh M. Chapman <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/14\/the-same-day-scotus-squashes-pas-illegal-ballots-secretary-of-state-tells-counties-to-break-the-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a> the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling did not affect the lower court\u2019s decision \u201cin any way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt provides no justification for counties to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-same-day-scotus-squashes-pas-illegal-ballots-secretary-of-state-tells-counties-to-break-the-law\/\" title=\"The Same Day SCOTUS Squashes PA\u2019s Illegal Ballots, Secretary Of State Tells Counties To Break The Law\">exclude ballots based<\/a> on a minor omission, and we expect that counties will continue to comply with their obligation to count all legal votes,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania election lawyer Linda A. Kerns told The Federalist at the time that Chapman\u2019s instruction \u201cdefies the Election Code written by the legislature and signed by the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the 2020 election, then-Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar bucked state law by issuing guidance that voters who needed to provide proof of identity could do so up to nine days after Election Day. State law <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/pennsylvania-court-secretary-of-state-changed-deadline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mandated<\/a> a cutoff six days after Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>Boockvar was later rebuked for flouting the guidance by Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, who <a href=\"https:\/\/static.foxbusiness.com\/foxbusiness.com\/content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/602-MD-2020-Order-Nov.-12.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> Boockvar \u201clacked statutory authority\u201d to \u201cchange the deadline \u2026 for certain electors to verify proof of identification.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f80814470308f9b02360977cd3a6df00 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f80814470308f9b02360977cd3a6df00\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allegedly, the PA State Dept. advised voters with invalid mail ballots to vote again using provisional ballots. Two voters are now seeking court intervention to compel Butler County to accept the corrected ballots. The Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a document on Tuesday aiming to resolve the issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2240168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/50564518207_d50ff02312_k-e1715188195917.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2240167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/50564518207_d50ff02312_k-e1715188195917.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2240167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2240168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2240167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2240167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2240167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}