Washington County moves to hire counsel to fight lawsuit regarding recent election

Washington County leaders moved to hire a special counsel to fight a recent lawsuit, accusing the county of secretly invalidating some mail-in ballots.

>> Washington County’s election board hid decisions to invalidate mail-in ballots, lawsuit claims

Ballot curing varies by state. Some states require election officials to alert you if your mail-in ballot needs to be fixed and some states do not. In Pennsylvania, it is up to the counties to decide and interpret the state election law.

In Washington, a group of voters and organizations disagreed with the county commissioner’s decision and filed a lawsuit.

In Washington County’s most recent election, more than 250 mail-in ballots were not counted because of user error, typically no signature or date on the envelope.

Channel 11 spoke to Bruce Jacobs, who found out after the election his vote did not count.

“I thought I had done everything correctly but I made a mistake apparently,” Jacobs said. “I forgot to sign and date the envelope.”

Jacobs and six other voters along with the NAACP filed a lawsuit after the county voted to change their policy on ballot curing, the ability to fix your ballot if the envelope is incorrect.

County Commissioner Larry Maggi agrees with the voters and believes voters should have the chance to correct their ballot so their vote counts.

“We had over 266 votes that weren’t counted this past election and that’s sad. We are bringing a national issue to Washington County and’s going to end up costing our taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars,” Maggi said.

Commissioner Nick Sherman voted for the new policy saying they are following state guidelines.

“This is a frivolous lawsuit. Pennsylvania state law is very clear,” Sherman said. “I say the same thing to my 10 and 13-year-old if someone else is breaking the law doesn’t mean you’re allowed to do it. I understand this is their interpretation of it... but it’s very clear. Once you receive it, you’re only allowed to open at 7:30 in the morning day of the election.”

Sherman tells Channel 11 it’s not political and he believes neighboring counties are interpreting the law incorrectly. He said he encourages voters to reach out to lawmakers to change the law.

We looked up the election code which states, “The county board of elections shall meet no earlier than 7 a.m. on election day to pre-canvass all ballots received prior to the meeting.”

Legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU Vic Walczak says he believes there would still be time to notify voters.

“In other counties what we’ve seen more than half of voters are able to fix their ballot and preserve their vote,” Walczak said.

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