Election officials must notify voters if mail-in ballots are set aside, Pa. high court rules

County election officials are required to accurately report when voters’ mail-in ballots have been set aside because of disqualifying errors and allow their votes to be counted on provisional ballots, Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled.

The state Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision Friday upholds lower court rulings that Washington County election officials violated voters’ rights by misleading them about the status of their mail-in ballots.

This prevented voters from challenging the board’s decision to disqualify 259 vote-by-mail ballots or casting provisional ballots as a backup to ensure their votes were counted, the courts said.

“We must interpret the Election Code and its statutory procedures in a way that ‘favors the fundamental right to vote and enfranchises, rather than disenfranchises, the electorate,’” Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote for the majority, quoting the court’s 2020 decision resolving issues surrounding the then-new vote-by-mail law.



https://penncapital-star.com/campaigns-elections/election-officials-must-notify-voters-if-mail-in-ballots-are-set-aside-pa-high-court-rules/