HARRISBURG, Pa. — A hearing was held Monday over the lawsuit demanding the state ensure its elections are fair and safe. The lawsuit claims the state dropped the ball on its handling of the June 2nd primary as thousands of voters' ballots were not counted after delays in receiving them.
At the hearing, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar says, more than 70,000 ballots were received in the week following the June 2nd primary. All of them unable to be counted because of the state's deadline to receive mail-in ballots by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
The Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans filed the lawsuit against Boockvar and the Director of the Bureau of Election Services and Notaries. The Alliance is asking the state to ensure the November election is fair by counting ballots received after the Election as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
Secretary Boockvar testified at the hearing and said a seven day extension would be too long and interfere with other election deadlines, like recounts. She said, she now supports counting ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within the following three days. She cited a letter from the United State Postal Service from six weeks ago. It stated that because of employee availability issues caused mainly by the pandemic, Pennsylvania's October 27th mail-in ballot request deadline for the November 3rd election is not enough time for ballots to be sent round trip from county election offices, to voters and then back to county election offices by Election Day.
A judge is expected to make a final ruling in this case on Friday, Sept. 4th.