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In this Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, file photo, a person drops applications for mail-in-ballots into a mail box in Omaha, Neb.
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Battle over mail-in ballots playing out in Pa. Legislature, state and federal courts

Nati Harnik/AP

Battle over mail-in ballots playing out in Pa. Legislature, state and federal courts

As the state’s highest court positions itself to potentially settle the partisan fight over mail-in ballot drop boxes and postmark deadlines, Republicans in the Pennsylvania House passed their own legislation on Wednesday that largely coincides with the legal wish list of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

There are many issues at the center of what has become a complex web of lawsuits, political posturing and legislative proposals, but most involve the ins-and-outs of mail-in voting as counties anticipate an overload of such ballots in November’s election.

Most, too, could be solved soon, but it might get messy — as Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, the Republican-controlled state Legislature, the Trump campaign and the Pennsylvania court system all insert themselves into the fight over how the mail-in voting system will work in a state that’s key to deciding the presidential race.

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One key aspect — whether and where counties will be allowed to install drop boxes for returning mail-in ballots — was addressed by the House GOP’s legislation, which passed mostly along party lines on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

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Their bill — very similar to the Republican proposal in the state Senate — outlines specific locations where ballots can be dropped off: to a county courthouse, permanent election office and polling places on Election Day, the AP reported.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, is arguing in federal court in Pittsburgh against the use of mail-in ballot drop boxes, warning of potential fraud and abuse. The campaign wants to halt the use of drop boxes that aren’t located in their respective county’s central elections office.

Democrats oppose those proposals, and through their state party apparatus, had sued in Commonwealth Court in July to get a legal ruling allowing county elections boards to “[provide] secure, easily accessible locations as the Board deems appropriate, including, where appropriate, mobile or temporary collection sites and/or drop boxes for the collection of mail-in ballots,” according to the original complaint.

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That suit was propelled to the state Supreme Court this week, as the body decided to take it on after Mr. Wolf’s administration had urged it to rule on a separate aspect of the case: whether or not to extend the deadline for mail-in and absentee votes to be counted.

Democrats are arguing in court that ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day and received by the county boards by 5 p.m. the next Tuesday should be counted — in anticipation of a larger number of voters trying to vote by mail, delays in voters receiving their ballots in the mail and a potential second wave of COVID-19 threatening to complicate the election.

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Currently, ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day — no matter when they are postmarked — will not be counted. Democrats have warned that voters who apply late for a ballot, which is permitted up until one week before the date, could be disenfranchised.

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This issue of postmarking is not addressed in the House GOP’s legislation, but it does move the deadline for voters to apply to 15 days before the election and moves forward the deadline for counties to send the ballots out to voters.

It also contains a measure allowing counties to start processing the influx of returned mail-in ballots as early as 8 a.m. three days before the Nov. 3 election, rather than at 7 a.m. on Election Day. Several counties had expressed the desire to have more time to process the ballots. Democrats want counties to have as many as 21 days before the election to start processing, according to the Associated Press.

The GOP’s legislation awaits approval in the Senate, the state Supreme Court awaits opening briefs by Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. and the Trump campaign’s suit has been put on hold.

The federal judge in the Trump case had ordered a stay until Oct. 5, awaiting judgments in the state courts. The campaign filed a motion in late August asking the court to modify the order and order counties to “segregate and maintain intact” mail-in ballots that are retrieved from drop boxes, among other ballots.

The campaign also wants the judge to order the counties to provide digital images and video “to the extent any video security surveillance system or internal camera is available and used to monitor drop-boxes or other sites and locations, including a county election office, used for the return and collection of cast absentee and mail-in [ballots],” according to the recent filing.

Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952, Twitter @julianrouth.

 

First Published: September 3, 2020, 9:50 a.m.

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