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BELLEFONTE -- A challenge filed against the Centre County Board of Elections for accepting mail-in ballots from the April presidential primary that were improperly dated was dismissed Friday because the petition was submitted after the filing deadline, according to recently released court documents.
The suit, filed May 7 by Centre County Republican Committee Chair Michelle M. Schellberg and joined by 18 registered voters in Centre County, argued 95 ballots accepted by the Board of Elections were invalid for violating state law on how ballots are to be dated.
Of the 95 ballots challenged, 57 had outer envelopes missing the last two digits of the year, 13 were missing the day or month and 23 reflected the "wrong date altogether."
Petitioners asserted that statutory and case law supports that "absentee ballots which are undated, incorrectly dated or unsigned, are invalid under Pennsylvania law which has been affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Federal Third Circuit."
Centre County Court of Common Pleas Judge Julia R. Rater ruled that the "Petitioners' Appeal is substantially an appeal challenging the decisions of the Board, despite any attempt to frame the Appeal as a petition for an election contest."
The distinction determines the timeline petitioners have to file a complaint. While the courts allow a filing period of 20 days for election contests, which allege an election is illegal because of administration failures, to appeal a decision by a county board, aggrieved persons must petition the court within two days of the decision.
In support of this opinion, Rater cited the contest of the Nov. 7, 2023 election in Towamencin Township, Montgomery County, where the court found petitioners who sought to contest the election based on the board's decision to recanvass six disputed ballots for being incorrectly dated was substantially an appeal challenging the board's decision.
The challenge at issue was found to be untimely, having been filed 12 days after the board's public statement that it would recanvass the disputed mail-in ballots and seven days after the actual recanvassing occurred.
According to the court's opinion, the two-day deadline was arguably April 27 -- as the board voted to accept the ballots April 25.
The very latest the two-day deadline could have been was May 2, as the board pre-certified the unofficial resulted, including the disputed ballots, April 30.
For this reason, the court's opinion is that it only has jurisdiction when "the statutory requirements for filing an election dispute are strictly followed."
The court ruled that even if construed as an election contest, the 20 day deadline was May 13 and "no statutorily compliant petition had been filed."