BELLEFONTE — Centre County Commissioners issued a rare statement expressing they were “more than a little upset” and “disturbed” about what they called misleading portrayals of the county’s election administration in the national media.

After Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court directed several counties to exclude undated or misdated mail-in ballots from their November election results, some national media outlets suggested that election officials in Centre County acted unlawfully in their handling of ballots,

In one example, journalist Nick Corasaniti wrote in an article published in the New York Times that “In at least four counties — Bucks, Philadelphia, Centre and Montgomery — local election officials are acting in open defiance of a ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that arrived weeks before the election.”

Although the board did not provide specific examples of misleading reporting, Commissioner Steven Dershem said, “We were thrown into a bucket of soup with counties that obviously thumbed their nose at what would be considered reasonable decisions from our state supreme court. That was not us.”

Amber Concepcion, chair of the county board of elections, stated the reported information appeared to be sourced from pleadings before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court or press releases issued by political parties.

“However,” she emphasized, “those filings and press releases do not accurately represent the facts regarding Centre County and undated mail-in or absentee ballots.”

At the center of the controversy are three ballots challenged by Republican US Senate candidate David McCormick, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. They argue the ballots should not have been counted, citing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision.

“The total number of ballots at issue was three — and then during the court case it was dropped to one — and this is not anything close to what has been reported nationally by a broad variety of media organizations,” said Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Higgins.

All disputed mail-in or absentee ballots were reviewed by the Board of Elections during a recorded, publicly advertised meeting on Nov. 7, 2024. According to Concepcion, at that time the board examined numerous ballots with date irregularities but ultimately counted only three — all of which were challenged. Two of those three challenges were withdrawn in litigation before the Centre County Court of Common Pleas, she said.

According to Concepcion, one of the disputed ballots included too many characters in the date boxes, while another had a date where the voter altered a “1” to a “0” to represent the month as October (10).

The third challenge was presented against a ballot where the voter wrote the date in day/month/year format as opposed to the standard month/day/year arrangement. The voter used the military or European date format, which guidelines from the Pennsylvania Department of State advised counties was acceptable.

“If you know anyone who’s in the military, that’s what they’re engrained to do. They write the date a certain way,” said Dershem. “I’m not going to disenfranchise someone because they use military (language on their) ballot.”

The high court ultimately did not rule on that challenge as the petitioners failed to make their appeal of the board’s decision within the required two day period.

“The Centre County Board of Elections followed all guidance provided by the Pennsylvania Department of State as well as all relevant court decisions,” said Concepcion.

At this time, no other legal challenges to Centre County’s counting of ballots or certification of election results remain.

“We have seen an incredible effort by both political parties to expand the reach of mail-in ballots. With that expansion has to be acceptance of the fact that not everything is going to be 100 percent perfect,” said Dershem. “What we needed was just an understanding that we are humans making decisions based on imperfect information. Not every date is going to be perfect,” he added.

Regarding the decision to count the three ballots, he said, “I think what we have done here has not only been reasonable and transparent, but I think it follows the letter and spirit of the law and the court decisions that follow it.”

He then urged lawmakers to clarify the election code to help streamline the process across the state and cut back on burdensome litigation.

“I will make another plea to our state legislators and our governor to please clean up whatever language you can from Act 77, so we can move on and not have the courts decide for us, either days before an election or in the middle of the election counting process, how we are supposed to do business,” said Dershem. “When we start the election process, we have one set of rules we are playing by and they’re changing along the way numerous times.”

“20 years ago when we were having elections, the process was pretty much cut-and-dry. That process has become much more complex, much more convoluted and certainly much more litigated than I would’ve ever imagined,” said Dershem, a 21-year veteran of the board, who thanked the people who maneuver those difficulties and still provide fair and accurate elections.

“We’ve got a top notch crew here in Centre County doing an amazing job, and I will stand behind them any day of the week when it comes to credibility and hard work,” he said.

Concepcion highlighted that efforts by the elections office, including redesigning ballot envelopes to improve instruction clarity and implementing SURE codes to notify voters of ballot errors for correction, contributed to only three ballots being disputed.

She pointed out that, despite a larger turnout, the general election saw a decrease in the number of improperly dated ballots compared to the spring primary.

“This smaller number of ballots that were at issue really speaks to the work that our elections staff did,” she said.

With the U.S. Senate race, where Republican David McCormick is leading incumbent Democrat Bob Casey within the 0.5 percent margin threshold for an automatic statewide recount, increased scrutiny is being placed on counties to ensure every vote is counted accurately.

Unofficial results show McCormick leading Casey by about 17,500 votes statewide, while Casey holds a narrow 2,300-vote lead over McCormick in Centre County. With both candidates vying for a win and the recount having started on Thursday, tensions are running high, and every vote counts.

During the two percent statistical audit the county held following the election, the county came within a few votes of being perfectly accurate, according to Dershem, meaning it is unlikely the recount will significantly change the vote totals in the county.

Which Concepcion said, “is what made it very disappointing that after all of these efforts that the national media didn’t do the local outreach that they should have done to make sure they had accurate facts about the decisions that were made in Centre County.”