Officials hear provisional ballot challenges
NORRISTOWN » The Montgomery County Board of Elections on Thursday held a hearing to consider challenges to provisional ballots cast by voters in the Nov. 3 general election.
Poll workers challenged 4,223 provisional ballots that were cast, officials said.
All challenges to provisional ballots were asserted by either the Republican or Democratic parties.
During the hearing, all challenges related to the same or similar issues were consolidated and heard by the board together. The board heard 14 such categories, or batches, of challenges raised by either the Democratic or Republican petitioners.
Challengers had the opportunity to present the basis for the challenges, any evidence and witnesses.
“We have an awesome responsibility today to get this right on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania,” Jonathan S. Goldstein, the lawyer representing GOP petitioners who filed some of the challenges, said during the hearing. “We are grateful to be a part of that peaceful, collaborative process to make sure we get all the votes that should be counted, counted.”
The Montgomery County Democratic Committee was represented by lawyer Tim Ford.
“Many of these challenges were made by out-of-state observers with no understanding and no appreciation of Pennsylvania law and no empathy for our families, friends and neighbors of any political affiliation here in Montgomery County,” Ford, solicitor for the county Democratic Committee, addressed the board regarding some of the GOP challenges.
Some of the challenges
the board heard on Thursday involved ballots that were missing signatures of one or two election officials, ballots of voters who did not sign the affidavit
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section of the provisional ballot, and provisional ballots of voters who voted outside the district where they lived.
Another issue addressed related to provisional ballots cast by those voters who also had been issued absentee or mail-in ballots.
“The ballots at issue were ballots that were voted provisionally by voters who had requested an absentee or mail-in ballot…Any voter that sent back and we received their mail-in ballot or absentee ballot was given zero credit, thus any provisional ballots that would be at issue here that were given full credit would have been voted properly. There’s no possibility of a double vote by any of those individuals,” county Solicitor Joshua Stein explained during the hearing.
Lawyers for the GOP petitioners who originally challenged such ballots agreed to withdraw the challenge based on Stein’s stipulation placed in the record.
“Now that we have an assurance and now that we have carefully examined the underlying processes that
your very competent staff has engaged in to ensure that there is no double voting in instances where (provisional ballots) were cast under those circumstances that Mr. Stein outlined, we are prepared to withdraw the blanket challenge that was issued to those,” Goldstein told the board, adding however, petitioners did not withdraw other challenges to certain provisional or absentee ballots that were addressed later.
After hearing various categories of challenges, the county commissioners, sitting as the Election Board, announced decisions to uphold or dismiss specific challenges.
At the conclusion of the nearly 90-minute hearing, county Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr., who is chairman of the Election Board, instructed election canvassing officials to “award appropriate credit to all submitted provisional ballots based on the decisions made by the board at this hearing.”
“Any party aggrieved by a decision of the election board may file a peti
tion with the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County seeking review of the decision within two days after the decision has been made,” Stein added.
The hearing was held in the county commissioners’ board room and in-person attendance was limited due to social distancing guidelines required during the coronav irus pandemic. County residents with challenged ballots who wished to participate in the hearing could submit comments via email.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, if you were a registered voter but your eligibility to vote at your polling place was uncertain you had the right to vote a provisional ballot.
Officials said sometimes county elections officials need more time to determine a voter’s eligibility to vote. Election officials may ask that voter to vote a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot records your vote while the county board of elections determines whether it can be counted.
Provisional ballots can
be issued for the following reasons:
• Your name was not in the poll book or supplemental poll book because you reported the wrong precinct or you did not report a recent change in residence to the county election office
• You are required to show ID, but cannot show ID
• Your eligibility was challenged by an election official
• You were issued but did not successfully vote an absentee or mail-in ballot and you do not surrender your ballot at the polling place to be spoiled
• You returned a completed absentee or mail-in ballot that was rejected by the county board of elections and you believe you are eligible to vote
• There is a special court order with respect to your registration status
• There is a special court order related to extending the hours of voting
All testimony presented during Thursday’s meeting was recorded by a stenographer and made part of the record of the hearing.