Allegheny County PA Counted 2,349 Undated Ballots
On Tuesday, The Allegheny County Board of Elections in Pittsburgh, PA voted to count 2,349 ballots that were mailed without dates.
The Board of Elections voted 2 to 1 to count those votes.
Councilman Sam DeMarco voted against the motion, stating that he would side with the law as it is written, which says the ballot mailing envelope must contain the date.
The ballots arrived on or before Election Day and were stamped with a date when they were received, according to Elections employees.
“They applied on time, received their ballots, voted their ballots, returned them on time with their signature, their printed name, their address. The only thing they’re missing is their date,” said county solicitor Andrew Szefi. “They were received timely, and our ballot sorting machine imprints a date received on each envelope as they’re scanned.”
The undated ballots will be further analyzed to confirm they are eligible ballots. So far, more than 2,600 ballots have been deemed ineligible after review.
Szefi explained that envelopes without dates will only be counted once they are throughly reviewed and meet the standards of an eligible ballot. If an undated ballot was a “naked ballot” — not placed within the secrecy envelope — or if the secrecy envelope had markings on it, it wouldn’t be counted.
On Monday, The Trump Campaign filed a lawsuit against Secretary of the Commonwealth, Kathy Boockvar and the boards of election in Allegheny and six other counties. The lawsuit claims equal protection violations, including an illegal, two-tiered voting system that treated voters who sent mail-in ballots differently than those who voted in person. The lawsuit also alleges that in-person voters were required to show identification while mail-in voters were not.
