Allegheny County Board Of Elections Votes To Count More Than 2,000 Ballots Without Declaration Dates
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- One week after Election Day and election-related lawsuits are piling up in Pennsylvania.
But so are the ballots.
More than 2,000 of those ballots were ballots that appear to be eligible in every way, except they didn't have a date on the outer envelope.
On Tuesday inside the election warehouse on the North Side, staffers began processing ballots at 9:00 a.m. and continued working until 9 p.m. At around 3:00 p.m., there were roughly 27,000 outstanding ballots in Allegheny County.
The process happened in front of 18 observers who represented both Republicans and Democrats, according to county leaders. Outstanding ballots included military and overseas ballots, which could be received until 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Of the 29,000 ballots originally mailed to the wrong voters, 7,000 of those are still under review.
"Right now, we are doing a comparison of any spoiled or surrendered ballots at the polling locations to make sure they didn't surrender their correct ballot and vote at the polls. So we want to make sure we do that prior to counting the 7,000," said David Voye, the Allegheny County Elections Division manager.
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There were also 17,000 provisional ballots that had not been opened yet and could start being processed as soon as Wednesday.
"We have to determine, number one, if they were registered. Number two, if the precinct they voted in is the right precinct. Number three, if they applied for an absentee or mail-in ballot, that it's already been returned," said Voye.
The only agenda item during the special Board of Elections meeting on Tuesday was about counting 2,349 ballots without declaration dates on the back of the envelopes. Those ballots were otherwise completed properly, enclosed in both the return and secrecy envelopes, and postmarked by Nov. 3.
The board passed the motion to count them two to one.
"What we have here is essentially a technicality that we don't want voters to get disenfranchised with," said Allegheny County solicitor Andy Szefi.
Those dateless ballots will undergo further analysis to make sure they are eligible. So far, more than 2,600 ballots have been thrown out as part of the normal review process.
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