HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's highest court on Friday said it will consider whether counties must accept provisional ballots cast on election day at polling places by voters whose mail-in ballots lacked secrecy envelopes or were rejected for other flaws.
It could determine the fate of thousands of votes that could otherwise be canceled in the Nov. 5 election, when Pennsylvania is considered a critical state in the presidential contest.
The Supreme Court took up the appeal from a Commonwealth Court decision just two weeks ago that said Butler County had to count provisional ballots from two voters who had received automatic emails before the April primary telling them their mail-in votes had been rejected because they were so-called “naked ballots” that weren't enclosed in the provided secrecy envelope.
When the two voters tried to cast provisional ballots, elections officials in Republican-majority Butler County rejected them, prompting a lawsuit. The voters lost in Butler County court but on Sept. 5 a panel of Commonwealth Court judges reversed, saying the two votes must be counted.
The case is among several lawsuits over the fate of Pennsylvania mail-in ballots cast by voters who failed to follow the rules in sending them in to be counted, most notably the much-litigated requirement for accurate, handwritten dates on the exterior envelopes. Democrats have embraced mail-in voting far more than Republicans since Pennsylvania lawmakers greatly expanded it five years ago, on the eve of the pandemic.
The decision to take the case comes a week after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Commonwealth Court in a separate mail-in ballot case, effectively allowing counties to enforce the exterior envelope date mandate.
The order issued Friday said the justices will consider whether counties must count provisional ballots cast by voters who fail to submit their ballot in a secrecy envelope — the issue that tripped up the two Butler voters. But the high court indicated it also may rule on the wider issue of permitting provisional ballots for voters whose mail-in ballots get rejected for other reasons.
The appeal was brought by the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, which argued Commonwealth Court was establishing court-mandated ballot curing that is not authorized in state election law.
The Supreme Court set deadlines next week for the GOP entities, the two Butler voters who sued and the state Democratic Party that's on their side as well as others who want to weigh in.
Provisional ballots that are typically cast at polling places on election day are separated from regular ballots in cases when elections officials need more time to determine a voter’s eligibility to vote.
County officials run elections in Pennsylvania. It’s unclear how many of the state's 67 counties do not let voters replace a rejected mail-in ballot with a provisional ballot, but the plaintiffs have indicated at least nine other counties may have done so in the April primary.
About 21,800 mail ballots were rejected in the 2020 presidential election, out of about 2.7 million mail ballots cast in the state, according to the state elections office.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
FILE - A worker processes mail-in ballots at the Bucks County Board of Elections office prior to the primary election in Doylestown, Pa., May 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A jury in Texas began to deliberate Friday whether the so-called “Trump Train” that surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus days before the 2020 election in a heated highway encounter amounted to political intimidation.
"This case is not about politics,” Robert Meyer, an attorney representing those aboard the bus, told the jury. “It’s about safety.”
The civil trial has spanned two weeks in a federal courthouse in Austin has included testimony from former Texas Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis, who ran for governor in 2014, and is one of three people who was on board the bus and brought the lawsuit against six supporters of former President Donald Trump.
No criminal charges have been filed against the Trump supporters, who have argued that their actions during the convoy on Oct. 30, 2020, were protected speech.
Video that Davis recorded from the bus shows pickup trucks with large Trump flags slowing down to box in the bus as it tried to move away from the group of Trump supporters. One of the defendants hit a campaign volunteer’s car while the trucks occupied all lanes of traffic, forcing the bus and everyone around it to a 15 mph crawl.
During closing arguments Friday, Meyer argued that the defendants’ conversations leading up to the convoy about “Operation Block the Bus,” dissemination of flyers and aggressive driving met the criteria for political intimidation. Jurors also listened to several 911 calls from bystanders who were fearful that the convoy would cause a collision.
“This wasn’t some kind of peaceful protest,” Meyer said. “The bus swarmed on all sides.”
Attorneys for the defendants argued they did not intend to hurt anyone or scheme a plan for Democrats to cancel their remaining campaign events in Texas.
“There was no civil assault because there was no intent to hurt anybody,” attorney Francisco Canseco said. Canseco represents Eliazar Cisneros who is accused of hitting a volunteer's car that was following the bus.
The jury will have to decide whether the defendants made an informal agreement to intimidate, harass or injure the Democrats on the bus in an effort to suppress their political support of President Joe Biden.
On Friday, comments outside the courtroom got heated between gallery members and one woman was escorted out.
Those on the bus — including Davis, a campaign staffer and the driver — repeatedly called 911 asking for help and a police escort through San Marcos, but when no law enforcement arrived, the campaign canceled the event and pushed forward to Austin.
The trial began with plaintiffs' attorneys saying that organizers targeted the bus in a calculated attack to intimidate the Democrats, arguing that it violated the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” an 1871 federal law that bans political violence and intimidation.
The City of San Marcos settled a separate lawsuit filed by the same three Democrats against the police, agreeing to pay $175,000 and mandate political violence training for law enforcement.
Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Closing arguments begin in civil trial over 'Trump Train' encounter with Biden-Harris bus in Texas
FILE - Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., ride on a bus in Phoenix, Oct. 8, 2020, on a small business bus tour. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Closing arguments begin in civil trial over 'Trump Train' encounter with Biden-Harris bus in Texas
