Undated ballots may affect races
While two Senate contests remain tight, Northampton County says 380 mail-ins will count unless state says otherwise
A Northampton County election commission solicitor on Monday said the county will count 380 undated mail-in ballots received in last Tuesday’s primary election unless told to do otherwise by state officials.
A portion of those ballots could prove critical to deciding the 14th Senate District Democratic primary, where as of Monday afternoon Nick Miller led Tara Zrinski by 101 votes.
It appeared certain that only a portion of the
380 would apply to the Miller-Zrinski race, but just how many was not immediately known.
Existing state law says undated mail-in ballots do not count.
But on Friday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — ruling on a case tied to last November’s elections — said the state requirement for a date on a mail-in ballot was “immaterial.”
That decision could have a widespread impact across the state, including on the razor-thin margin of fewer than 1,100 votes separating Republican U.S. Senate candidates Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick.
The Department of State Monday afternoon said that based on data from counties, about 11,300 Democratic and 5,400 absentee and mail ballots remain outstanding, and those figures likely include “rejected ballots that have not yet been recorded” — a category that would include undated mail-in ballots.
Department spokesperson Amy Gulli said “conversations are happening” about the federal court ruling but no guidance had yet been issued to counties.
The 14th state Senate District, which is new and has no incumbent, includes parts of Northampton and Lehigh counties.
Zrinski, 46, is a Northampton County Councilmember, adjunct professor and solar energy consultant who lives in Hanover Township. Miller, 27, is an Allentown School Board member and owns a real estate business.
“The county has always followed the law,” said Richard Santee, Northampton County Election Commission solicitor. “And right now, according to the Third Circuit, the law of the land is those votes count.”
Tim Benyo, chief clerk of the Lehigh Board of Elections, said the county received 53 undated mail-in ballots.
Forty of those were Democratic ballots, Benyo said, but he could not say how many were in the 14th
District. The county, Benyo said, was waiting for the state guidance on how to handle the undated mail-in ballots.
The portion of the 14th District in Northampton County includes Allen, Bushkill, East Allen, Hanover, Lehigh and Moore townships, as well as Bath, Chapman, North Catasauqua, Northampton and Walnutport.
In Lehigh, it includes part of Allentown; Hanover, Salisbury, and Whitehall townships and part of South Whitehall Township; and Catasauqua, Coplay, Emmaus and Fountain Hill.
Benyo said counties have until the close of business Tuesday to report unofficial results to the state.
Meetings of elections officials are expected to occur Tuesday in at least some Pennsylvania counties, including Northampton and Bucks, in which formal action could be taken on as-yet uncounted
ballots.
16th District
An even closer undecided primary contest in the 16th Senate District also could be impacted significantly by the undated mail-in ballot issue.
As of Monday afternoon, Jarrett Coleman had a 17-vote lead of 17,022 to 17,005 over incumbent Sen. Pat Browne.
Coleman already has declared victory in the race, and an attorney for Coleman has promised court action if undated mail-in ballots are counted.
Browne, an Allentown resident, has been a lawmaker in Harrisburg for decades. As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he is among those at the forefront of state budget negotiations each year.
Coleman is an airline pilot who lives in Upper Macungie Township and serves on the Parkland School Board. He is seeking a state-level elective office for the first time.
The 16th includes parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties.
Benyo said six of the undated Republican mail-in ballots are in the Lehigh portion of the 16th District.
In Bucks, spokesman Jim O’Malley last week said there were 714 mail-in ballots set aside because of issues that included lack of a signature, date or a secrecy envelope. He did not provide a breakdown, and he also did not say how many were in the 16th Senate District.