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The presidential election is getting litigious as the nation awaits word on who will be the next president of the United States.
One of the hotbeds for lawsuits is the coveted state of Pennsylvania, which could be the one that decides the election.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court smacked down an effort by Democrats to allow mail-in ballots that do not have a handwritten date on them to be counted, Fox News reported.
“The ruling overturns a decision from a Commonwealth Court finding that the state law requiring a handwritten date was unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania GOP appealed that ruling to the state supreme court, and now undated mail-in ballots will not be counted in the upcoming election,” the report said.
In the decision on Friday Justice Kevin Dougherty blistered the Commonwealth Court that took it upon itself to allow the ballots.
“‘This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election.’ We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago. Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds,” he said in the decision.
“Today’s order, which I join, rights the ship. And it sends a loud message to all courts in this Commonwealth: in declaring we would not countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election, we said what we meant and meant what we said,” the Justice said.
Republicans in the state celebrated the decision as the court has sent a loud message that courts in the state cannot change the laws that exist during an election.
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the law, and the dated ballot requirement will be in effect for this election. Democrats have repeatedly tried to eliminate this important ballot safeguard, and we have stopped them each time,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said of the decision. “We are committed to protecting critical ballot safeguards to ensure every ballot is cast and counted properly and will continue to fight across Pennsylvania to Protect the Vote.”
The state officials who wanted to count the undated ballots said that it would make the jobs of election workers simpler.
“The requirement that county boards set aside mail ballots with declaration-date errors — and particularly the requirement that they set aside mail ballot envelopes with ‘incorrect’ dates — imposed a significant burden on county boards. Election workers must manually review every ballot envelope to determine whether it has a ‘correct’ date,” a brief from the Pennsylvania Department of State said.
The news came as Republicans scored another massive victory in Georgia.
It came after a number of reliably Democrat strongholds announced that they would be open throughout the weekend, which Republicans said was a violation of state law.
“It has come to our attention that Fulton County election officials are planning to open four election offices this weekend ‘to accommodate voters seeking to hand-return their absentee ballots.’ This is a blatant violation of Georgia law, subsection (d) of Code Section 21-2-385, O.C.G.A. § 21-2-382 which states ‘all drop boxes shall be closed when the advance voting period ends,’” Georgia Republicans said in a press release.
“This must be stopped immediately and those willfully breaking Georgia law should be held accountable. To make matters worse, the four election office locations are situated in areas of the county that will clearly favor Democrat candidates,” the press release said. “We are calling on state officials to take immediate action to stop this and maintain confidence in Georgia’s election integrity. Fulton County’s patently illegal acts give us no choice but to immediately file suit.”
Fulton County Registration Manager Kathryn Glenn informed county officials on Saturday that poll watchers would not be allowed in the counting centers.
“FYI – There are NO WATCHERS approved for ballot drop off! Do not let them in the building,” the email, which was sent to Fulton County election officials, said. “If they want to observe from the parking lot, you can’t stop that but they are not allowed to sit in the building. Have your security detail enforce it!!”
Republicans quickly approached Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Republican Governor Brian Kemp and asked them to intervene and allow poll watchers into the counting centers.
They threatened to file lawsuits and were quickly informed that the poll watchers would now be allowed in the centers.
