Latest news with #SusanBaxter
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Luzerne County provides update on mail ballot dating issue
May 8—Unless a court ruling says otherwise, Luzerne County will be counting May 20 primary election mail ballots missing handwritten dates on the outer envelope, officials said during Wednesday's county election board meeting. A federal court ruling by District Judge Susan Baxter, an appointee of President Donald Trump in his first term, determined the rejection of undated or wrongly dated ballots violated the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. An appeal is pending, but the decision stands at this time because a stay was not granted, county Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino said during Wednesday's meeting. To be safe, the county election bureau will still segregate impacted ballots in case the appeal court rules otherwise by the election, Molino said. Voters are instructed to sign and date the outer envelope where indicated. The date refers to when the ballot was filled out, not a birth date. Critics have questioned the need for the date because the election bureau time-stamps the ballots when they are received and does not accept ballots that arrive after the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline. Following state guidance, the election bureau will continue canceling ballots in the state system if they are missing outer envelope voter signatures or required inner secrecy envelopes. County Election Director Emily Cook said ballots with missing or incorrect handwritten dates will not be canceled, but the date issue will be noted in the online ballot tracker so voters have the option to remedy the situation in case the ruling is overturned. The ballot tracker is available at Those receiving alerts of ballot deficiencies will be able to appear at the election bureau to submit a new ballot or fill out a paper provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day. Provisional ballots are reviewed last by the board to verify nobody is voting twice. As in the past, the election board also agreed to supply lists of May 20 primary election voters with ballot defects — including date issues — to party leaders so they can attempt to contact those voters and inform them of their option to cast a provisional ballot at the polls before 8 p.m. This is known as curing. A curing list will be provided both the day before the election and on Election Day. Between 18,000 and 20,000 mail ballots have been issued to voters at their request, and approximately 7,000 have been returned to date, Cook estimated. The county has two drop boxes in the lobby of county-owned buildings: —Penn Place Building lobby, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre — weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. —Broad Street Exchange Building, 100 W. Broad St., Hazleton — weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The county will stop accepting ballots at the Hazleton box at 4 p.m. May 19. The Penn Place box will be available until 8 p.m. on Election Day. A box also is set up inside the election bureau on the second floor of the Penn Place Building. The box in the Penn Place Building lobby has a camera and other added security features because the county is participating in a pilot program. County Deputy Election Director Steve Hahn told the election board 337 ballots have been deposited in the Penn Place lobby box to date. There were 51 placed in the election bureau box and under 20 in the Hazleton box, he said. Election Board Vice Chairwoman Alyssa Fusaro obtained verification from the election bureau that it is following the board's chain-of-custody policy to document counts on mail ballots retrieved from drop boxes. Fusaro said the policy was not followed in some instances for the Nov. 5 general election and added, "We can't have that issue again." Poll workers The county has approximately 1,343 poll workers but still needs assistance in Kingston, Luzerne, City of Pittston and Kingston Township, Cook said. Interested residents should contact the election bureau at 570-825-1715, she said. Poll worker training is underway in person or through an online program, with 667 signed up for the primary, she said. Cook said the bureau is complying with a board policy requiring poll workers to complete at least one training annually. Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Will undated mail-in ballots be counted in Pennsylvania?
(WHTM) — The thorny issue of Pennsylvania's mail-in ballots is once again being batted around in the courts. The latest ruling from a federal judge in Pittsburgh says undated mail-ins should be counted—a reversal from the State Supreme Court's most recent decision that governed the November election. Judge Susan Baxter's 21-page ruling says booting ballots for outer envelope errors violates the U.S. Constitution. The state's previously ruled undated mail-ins must not be counted per the law. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'Well, to use a non-legal word, this is a mess, and it has ping-ponged through the courts,' said John Jones, President of Dickinson College and a former federal judge. 'Maybe it goes to the Supreme Court of the United States to decide it,' Jones added. The Pennsylvania Department of State applauds Baxter's decision, saying in part, 'A voter's fundamental right to vote should not be burdened by a meaningless technicality.' But Republicans bristle at a plainly written law called a meaningless technicality. FirstEnergy announces layoffs in Pennsylvania, four other states 'Judges are to interpret the law as it's written, not as they want it to happen,' said Rep. Kerry Benninghoff (R). But lawmakers have known for years there's legal ambiguity around mail-ins and drop boxes, with no continuity between counties. 'This is so poorly written,' said Rep. Scott Conklin (D), who was a no-vote on Act 77, which created mail-ins. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'It's going to go to the courts, and you're going to cause chaos and exactly what happened,' said Conklin. So, why haven't obvious flaws been fixed? 'Politics,' answered Conklin. 'This is the greatest political scandal that's been going on in years.' Everything boils down to 202 votes here, 26 votes in the Senate, and a Governor is willing to sign it,' said Benninghoff. Until lawmakers pass and a Governor signs, judges will have to keep ruling. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
PA Mail-in ballot ruling decided
Judge ruled Mail-In ballots in Pennsylvania will be counted even if the ballots are mis dated. U.S. District Judge Susan Baxter handed down that decision. It does impact election boards in Pennsylvania's 67 counties. That's all of them. Judge Baxter says failing to count a vote because of a misprint of a date violates the First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge rules Pa. ballot dating rule violates constitutional right to political expression
A Pennsylvania mail ballot envelope (Capital-Star photo) Pennsylvania's requirement for voters to write the date on mail-in ballots infringes on the constitutional right to free expression, a federal judge in western Pennsylvania ruled Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Baxter is the latest in a series on Act 77, which gave voters the option of voting by mail without an excuse for not going to the polls in person for the first time in 2020. It's also the second time Baxer has found the law impermissibly disenfranchises voters. People who choose to vote by mail are required to complete a declaration including the date on the outside of the envelope provided to return their ballots. But voters often forget the date or write a date unrelated to the election, such as their birthdate. Such mistakes have caused tens of thousands of ballots to be disqualified even when they're returned on time. They often form the basis to challenge mail ballots in close elections. In a lawsuit by the national Democratic congressional and senate campaign committees and the American Federation of Teachers against Pennsylvania's 67 county boards of elections, Baxter found the requirement serves no compelling government interest and doesn't justify infringing on voters' First Amendment rights. She found no evidence to support 'nebulous' claims by Republican groups that intervened in the case that the date requirement bolsters voter confidence or preserves the solemnity of voting. While preventing voter fraud is less ambiguous, there's also no evidence the date requirement serves that purpose, Baxter said. 'Since there is no evidence that the date requirement serves any state interest, even a slight burden on voting rights cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny,' she wrote. 'Put another way, even the slightest burden that results from the enforcement of the date provision is too much when there is no counterbalance.' Calls to attorneys for the Republican National Committee and an attorney and a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senate Campaign Committee were not returned Monday. Last year, Baxter, who is a Trump appointee, ruled in a separate lawsuit the date requirement violated the Materiality Clause of the federal Civil Rights Act, which bans rules that prevent people from voting over meaningless errors on election paperwork. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Baxter's decision, finding the provision applies only when the state is determining who may vote and not to 'rules, like the date requirement, that govern how a voter must cast his ballot for it to be counted.' The date requirement has also been the subject of a web of state court decisions that have, so far, failed to resolve whether the rule violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. In a case last October, the state Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue with the Nov. 5 presidential election less than 30 days away,citing the risk of confusion a change in the rules might cause. In each of the prior cases, the evidence established that counties stamp ballots with the date and time they are received to document that they arrived before the Election Day deadline. The Supreme Court in January agreed to hear an appeal in a case from Philadelphia challenging the disqualification of mail-in ballots in a special election for the state House. The lower Commonwealth Court ruled just before the Nov. 5 election that the date rule violates the state constitution. In her decision, Baxter noted the right to free expression at issue was separate from the 'core political speech' protected under the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court established a test to determine whether rules that infringe on political expression via the ballot are constitutional. That test balances whether the infringement is justified by an interest in orderly elections. 'The commonwealth has not identified what specific regulatory interest is furthered. Indeed, despite formal notification, the commonwealth has not defended the constitutionality of the dating requirement,' Baxter said, noting that most of the county boards of elections had not identified an interest in enforcing the date requirement.
