(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito put a hold on a Pennsylvania recount as the lower court’s decision awaits Supreme Court oversight, as the GOP primary battle continues between Mehmet Oz and David McCormick.
Alito’s administrative stay overrides the 3rd Circuit Court’s decision that permitted undated ballot to be counted as if they were properly dated, the Washington Post reported.
According to Pennsylvania voting law, it is necessary to “fill out, date and sign” the declaration on the outside of the ballot envelope.
The judges of the 3rd Circuit Court, however, reasoned that asking people to date envelopes violates civil rights law because filling things out correctly is irrelevant to the voter’s qualifications.
“We are at a loss to understand how the date on the outside envelope could be material when incorrect dates — including future dates — are allowable but envelopes where the voter simply did not fill in a date are not,” Judge Theodore McKee wrote.
“Surely, the right to vote is made of sterner stuff than that.”
The recount involves primarily a local judge races in Lehigh County, but it could have bearing on the race between Oz and McCormick. Oz leads in the county by 1,000 votes as things stand.
Oz filed a brief in support of the leading judge candidate David Ritter, decrying the recount as unfair.
“The Third Circuit’s thinly reasoned and erroneous decision — which addressed a county judicial election conducted more than six months ago — is now being weaponized to undermine the apparent result of a statewide primary election for the Republican nomination to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate,” Oz’s legal team wrote in a brief addressed to the Supreme Court.
According to the McCormick campaign, if the undated ballots are considered in the recount, McCormick could have a very realistic shot at winning the essential Lehigh County race.
