Allegheny County to count 2,349 undated ballots

The Allegheny County Board of Elections on Tuesday voted to count 2,349 ballots that appear to be eligible in every way save for the voter failing to put a date on the outer envelope.

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.

“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,” said county solicitor Andrew Szefi. “They were received timely, and our … ballot sorting machine imprints a date received on each envelope as they’re scanned.”

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.

“We’ve taken a hard look at this,” Szefi said. “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.”

He likened it to other parts of the Elections Code that indicate a voter must do something, but that was later found to be a technicality that should not void a vote. For example, he said, the code says that voters shall use blue or black ink to mark the ballots; but officials have decided the use of another color is technicality that shouldn’t rule out the vote.

Szefi stressed that envelopes without dates will only be counted if they are otherwise eligible. For example, if an undated ballot was a “naked ballot” — not placed within the secrecy envelope — or if the secrecy envelope had markings on it, it would be not counted.

DeMarco indicated that he would side with the law as it is written, which says the ballot mailing envelope shall contain the date.

“I’m sorry, but no,” he said in casting his vote against the motion.

There were approximately 33 pages of public comments submitted via email before the meeting, and the comments ran the gamut: From allegations of fraud and demands for a recount, to thanks for the Elections Division employees and support for accepting mail-in ballots mailed by Nov. 3 but received by the Nov. 6 deadline.

One emailed public comment alleged that deceased individuals were “registered and voted in this general election.”

In Pennsylvania, there has been one report along such lines. In October in Luzerne County, a man was accused of requesting an absentee ballot on behalf of his deceased mother. According to the Citizens Voice, the man, a registered Republican, falsified his deceased mother’s signature and listed the reason for requesting an absentee ballot as “visiting great-grandkids Oct.24-Nov. 10.” He allegedly told police he knew it was wrong but did it anyway.

A writer from Baldwin Borough questioned why “blank paper ballots were on a table where any could take one” and why the “very young adult” working the scanning machine in her precinct “did not (vet) anyone casting their ballot.”

She also questioned why her ballot did not include an option to vote for Sean Parnell, the Republican challenger to Rep. Conor Lamb in the state’s 17^th Congressional District. Baldwin Township is part of that district; Baldwin Borough is not.

Some ballots remain to be counted

According to Elections Manager David Voye, around 25,000 ballots remain to be counted, including 17,000 provisional ballots. Voters are entitled to provisional ballots for a number of reasons, including if their name does not appear on the poll book, they requested a mail-in ballot but did not receive it, or if they’re asked to show identification but cannot do so.

Before those ballots can be viewed and processed, it must be determined whether that individual is in fact eligible to vote, that they reside in the precinct they voted in and that they did not apply for and return a mail-in ballot.

The Return Board could start counting those votes Wednesday, Voye said.

About 7,000 ballots out of 29,000 that had to be segregated because they were part of a printing mishap in October also still need to be counted. In October, Midwest Direct, the company contracted to print and mail Allegheny County’s ballots, sent just under 29,000 residents the wrong ballot, followed later by a corrected ballot.

In an agreement with Republican candidates who raised concerns about duplicate ballots, the county agreed to separate those ballots to be counted after election night. Officials said those votes were separated into three categories: Voters who returned only the corrected ballot, voters who returned both the incorrect and corrected ballot, and voters who only returned the incorrect ballot.

For those in the second category, the duplicates were segregated and not opened or counted. For those in the third category, board members are comparing the returned incorrect ballots against ballots that were surrendered at the polls to make sure the voter did not surrender their corrected ballot and vote in person.

Another 947 ballots that were postmarked by Election Day were received between Nov. 4 and 5 p.m. Nov. 6. Those ballots are deemed eligible by the state but must be segregated from other ballots, in case the Supreme Court takes up a Republican challenge to the deadline.

County officials also noted there are around 2,600 ballots so far that will not be counted. That includes about 2,000 naked ballots (those arriving without the inner secrecy envelope), 439 ballots that were incomplete, such as those that were blank or missing signatures, and 225 duplicate votes.

“These would have been people that applied and either got antsy and came into the office and asked for a duplicate ballot, or on the last weekend of the satellite offices came in and reapplied and we processed those as a duplicate,” Voye said of the 225 duplicate ballots.

Voter turnout in Allegheny County was just over 74% of the county’s registered voters.