A Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters whether their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary election, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The case is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in courts in Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground state where November’s contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be close.

Through a 2-1 decision, the statewide Commonwealth Court panel upheld a Washington County judge’s month-old order.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    does the article say what’s stopping them from just auto-replying “yes we counted your vote” to every inquiry?

    • calabast@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      “The order requires county employees to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.”

    • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      If they lie and tell people that their votes were counted when they weren’t in order to disenfranchise them by robbing them of their opportunity to correct the ballot, I believe they could face fraud charges. That’s in addition to any potential legal consequences for violating this court order.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Math? Like they can’t send more of those emails than votes they counted. The easiest thing would to just keep track of the ballots not counted so you know who was not counted. How many of them could there possibly be in one county? If there are a lot, that would be huge problem, right?

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Nothing, I thought about that in the pandemic when I voted by mail. What’s stopping them from just saying yeah, we counted yours, but then they don’t.

      • bluGill@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        Votes are supposed to be counted in front of independant observors. depending on who you voted for one party has incentive to scream if they reject your ballot.

          • bluGill@fedia.io
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            1 month ago

            even in the most one sided areas there are generally a few opbosition figures. For that matter libertarians count if they observe.