Centre County primary election results remain uncertified after hearing on appeal filed by GOP

A Centre County judge refrained Thursday from ruling on a Republican challenge to the validity of certain mail-in ballots from the primary election, choosing instead to allow attorneys additional time to present their arguments.

Centre County Judge Julia Rater did not signal during a hearing that lasted more than an hour which way she may be leaning. Her questions to attorneys largely sought to clarify their positions.

She gave attorney Louis Glantz and Centre County solicitor Betsy Dupuis until Tuesday to file a brief to bolster their arguments. Rater said she hopes to issue her decision by May 24, though she did not guarantee it.

Centre County’s primary election results will remain uncertified in the interim, about one month after voters made their choices.

Centre County Republican Committee Chair Michelle Schellberg’s filing alleged 95 mail-in ballots were counted improperly by the county’s elections board because they were not dated correctly. It did not claim fraud or that the votes would alter the outcome.

Instead, Republicans argue the board’s decision could affect at least hundreds of ballots in what is expected to be a tightly contested presidential race in November.

“It will make a big difference in the fall,” Glantz told Rater. “... I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”

Fifty-seven ballots lacked the last two digits of the year, 23 reflected the wrong date and 13 were missing either the day or month. Two other mail-in ballots were inadvertently flagged.

The elections board — made up of the county’s three commissioners, two Democrats and one Republican — voted unanimously in April to accept each of the ballots.

It remains unclear if Rater will rule on the case’s merits. The elections board argued for dismissal, claiming the challenge was filed 10 days late.

The appeal, Dupuis argued, serves as nothing more than an attempt to delay certification of the election and a way to hamstring Centre County voters.

If Rater finds the appeal was timely, she acknowledged her decision will be “all-or-nothing.” If one ballot were to be tossed because it was not dated properly, so would the rest.

Dupuis declined to comment after the hearing. Glantz expressed optimism, saying he felt the hearing “went pretty good.”

State Sen. Cris Dush, R-Brookville, supported the appeal, which was also signed by 18 Centre County voters.

Centre County Democratic Committee Chair Margie Swoboda told the Centre Daily Times last week that her party will closely follow the litigation, adding “we can’t make this any harder for people to vote.”

“It should be not this hard for someone to vote if they mess up a date,” Swoboda said. “That’s where we are coming from. There’s so many safeguards that are put in by the Centre County elections office, that are put in by the Department of State to make sure those people that get those absentee or mail-in ballots are registered voters.”

A federal appeals court panel found in March that a requirement for Pennsylvania voters to put accurate handwritten dates on the outside envelopes of their mail-in ballots does not run afoul of a civil rights law.

A divided 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to uphold enforcement of the required date on return envelopes, a technical mandate that caused thousands of votes to be declared invalid in the 2022 election.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which helped represent groups and voters who challenged the date mandate, told the Associated Press the ruling could mean thousands of votes won’t be counted over what it believes is a meaningless error.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats have been far more likely to vote by mail than Republicans under an expansion of mail-in ballots enacted in 2019.