Philly Leader

The leader of a voter integrity push in the Pennsylvania state House warned Philadelphia City Commissioner’s Office to “follow the law” or face impeachment proceedings over its decision to count approximately 1,300 undated mail ballots from the May 18 primary.

State Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), who chairs the State Government Committee, told the Philly Leader that the commissioners’ decision to count the unsigned ballots is in direct violation of commonwealth law, as well as a Pennsylvania Supreme Court interpretation of the law.

Grove, and the leaders of the House Republican Caucus, sent a letter in late May to City Commissioners Lisa Deely and Omar Sabir, both Democrats, citing the law and the court ruling, and warning them to stop or face impeachment. 

Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican, voted against the counting.

“Some counties wrongly count undated ballots out of habit,” Grove said. “In Philadelphia, they actually voted to approve the counting of the ballots.”

The letter cites Section 1306 of the commonwealth's Election Code, which includes a line covering an absentee voter’s responsibility: “The elector shall then fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope.” 

Another section contains the same language for mail-in electors.

The Republicans also cited a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in Canvass of Absentee & Mail-in Ballots of November 3, 2020 Gen. Election “that the unambiguous requirement of including a date on a returned ballot would be set aside, but only for the 2020 General Election.”

In the case, Justice David Wecht wrote that he did not agree with the conclusion reflected in the Opinion Announcing the Judgment of the Court that a voter’s failure to comply with the statutory requirement that voters date the voter declaration should be overlooked as a "minor irregularity."

“This requirement is stated in unambiguously mandatory terms, and nothing in the Election Code suggests that the legislature intended that courts should construe its mandatory language as directory,” Wecht wrote. “Thus, in future elections, I would treat the date and sign requirement as mandatory in both particulars, with the omission of either item sufficient without more to invalidate the ballot in question."

Grove said that he believed the vote by the commission to count the ballots was done to “bait” the Republicans into a court challenge. They threatened impeachment instead.

The introduction of election reform legislation in the House is imminent, stemming from four months of State Government Committee hearings into the commonwealth's election laws.