ACLU speaking out after vote by Washington County commissioners
WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) — In Washington County, some votes are at risk of not being counted.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania is now speaking out after county commissioners voted to not allow voters who made mistakes with absentee or mail-in ballots to make corrections, also known as curing.
In a 2 to 1 vote earlier this month, county commissioners voted to not notify voters of mistakes made on the declaration form on the outer return envelope. The county is following the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling. Last month, it ruled that undated or misdated ballots should not be counted in Pennsylvania.
"They didn't talk about notice and cure at all. It was not an issue in the case. I was counseling the case. It's not an issue. So, nothing has changed in Pennsylvania law regarding the ability of counties to offer voters an opportunity to correct an error on the declaration on their envelope. Nothing has changed. The only thing that's changed is Washington County," said Marian Schneider, senior policy council for voting rights at the ACLU.
At least 14,000 ballots were mailed out: 10,379 for Democrats and 3,681 for Republicans This has promoted some to believe Democratic voters may be disproportionately impacted by the county's decision. The chairman of the Washington County Republican Party doesn't believe it's politically motivated.
"It's a matter of doing a few things really well. The election office's job is to again accept the vote, tabulate them and report them. That's their job. They are going to do that very well. Adding extra duties on top of that limits what they can do," Sean Logue said.
Nearly 7,500 ballots have been received and 133 are deficient.
KDKA-TV reached out to the county, which sent a statement from Commissioner Nick Sherman:
"We have yet to have the chance to review the ACLU letter with our solicitor. Nonetheless, we want to reassert our decision to abide by the majority ruling of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Accordingly, we will not provide an opportunity to "cure" or amend ballots after they have been submitted to the county."