(PresidentialHill.com)- Following the State Supreme Court’s decision that mail-in ballots with an incorrect date cannot be counted, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSC), and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against all 67 county boards of elections.
Marc Elias of the Elias Law Group, a former legal advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, was retained by Fetterman to represent him in the complaint. Elias was previously engaged by former Virginia governor and DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe to oppose Glenn Youngkin’s successful campaign.
In response to an immaterial omission of a written date or the entry of an incorrect date on the outside of the ballot envelope, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, for the first time, ordered election officials not to count qualified voters’ mail-in and absentee ballots (collectively, “mail ballots”). The Pennsylvania Election Code section that instructs voters to “fill out, date, and sign the declaration” supplied on the envelope in which they cast their ballot served as the foundation for the ruling.
Since then, counties have done the same. County board elections have already identified thousands of mail ballots that will not be tallied because of a missing or mismatched date on the ballot envelope in the days following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, the lawsuit claims. Even though there is no doubt that the ballots were received on time and were duly signed by a qualified voter, election officials have been told to reject such ballots.
Bette Eakin, a registered Democrat in Erie County, Pennsylvania, is one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs. The date that Eakin’s ballot was received was unknown. According to the case, Eakin, a military member, failed to mark the date on her ballot since she is currently blind.
Plaintiff Ines Massella is a different Democratic registered voter from the county whose 2022 ballot was undated and will not be considered. However, no explanation is offered as to why Massella forgot to record the date.
In March, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s 2017 campaign were fined by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for breaking election laws related to the concealment of $1,024,407.97 paid to Fusion GPS by Perkins Coie.
It was alleged that Elias, former Clinton counsel, and partner at Perkins Coie, lied about the money.
