High court decision stirs election picture

Lehigh County to start counting undated 2021 mail ballots

Lehigh County officials could start opening and counting 257 undated mail-in ballots from the November 2021 election as soon as Monday following a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court involving a county judge’s race.

Lehigh County Election Board Chief Clerk Tim Benyo said the county received an order from a federal judge Friday directing it to “count the undated ballots” from 2021.

Depending on how quickly advertising could be carried out ahead of the public counting process, Benyo said it could start Monday.

The addition of votes from the 257 undated mail ballots could alter the result of a judge’s race in which Republican David Ritter leads Democrat Zachary Cohen by 74 votes.

But the soon-to-be-counted votes also could play a factor in many other 2021 Lehigh races that have lower public profiles and whose results have not been certified.

Benyo said those include many precinct judge of elections positions and inspector of elections positions.

Beyond that, it could have at least a psychological influence on another election court case. In that one, voters in a Lehigh Valley state Senate race pitting candidate Tara Zrinski against Nick Miller want so-called “naked” ballots and late-arriving ballots to be counted.

The Supreme Court decision also is being noticed in Harrisburg, where efforts to pass voting reforms have stalled.

The saga of the unsettled Ritter-Cohen vote count began when the Lehigh County Election Board in November voted to count undated mail ballots, contrary to the provisions of state law.

A long series of court actions led to a federal appeals court ruling on May 20 that held that a requirement that such ballots be dated by voters was immaterial.

Thursday’s Supreme Court unsigned order, which was split 6-3, denied an application for a stay in carrying out that decision. As a result, a federal judge issued the order Lehigh County received Friday to count the undated ballots.

Joshua Voss, an attorney for Ritter, said the decision only