A rural county in southeastern Pennsylvania says it will set aside absentee ballots that arrive after 8 p.m. Tuesday evening and wait for “a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court or some other direction” before deciding whether to count them.
The declaration was made by Lancaster County Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Ray D’Agostino in a Facebook post, despite a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that ruled votes received up until 5 p.m. on Friday must be counted.
“Between Wednesday and Friday this week, mail ballots that came in Monday and Tuesday will be processed, and ballots received Wednesday through Friday with post marks by 8pm on Election Day (or no postmark) will be set aside until a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court or some other direction,” D’Agostino wrote.
The extension of the deadline for ballots was granted by the Democrat-dominated Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a state where Democrats have requested three times the number of ballots than Republicans. Pennsylvania Republicans appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 4-4 meaning the state court ruling stood.
However, conservative justices indicated they would look be willing to revisit the issue after the election.
Initially, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, instructed county election officials to segregate ballots that arrive after 8 p.m. Tuesday.
But that has changed, according to Harrisburg’s CBS network affiliate WHP, saying Boockvar’s office has now instructed the votes to be counted.
However, D’Agostino said he thinks it better if the county waits until a court makes a final decision.
“There’s no good way, once they’re counted, to uncount them in case the Supreme Court states otherwise,” he said. “Because once they’re scanned in, there’s no good way to get those election ballots, the votes, out of the system.”
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.