Judge asks Commonwealth Court to dismiss GOP无毛视频檚 ballot-curing appeal
Opinion claims Republican challenge was filed after 10-day deadline
The judge who recently decided the ballot-curing lawsuit in Washington County is asking the state Commonwealth Court to dismiss Republican efforts to appeal his ruling, claiming they missed the deadline to file.
Court of Common Pleas Judge Brandon Neuman submitted an opinion Monday notifying the appellate court that attorneys for the Republican National Committee and state GOP were informed of his Aug. 23 order that same day, which would put their Sept. 5 filing outside the 10-day window to appeal election-related matters.
Neuman’s two-page opinion supporting his order does not take exception with the merits of the appeal, but “addresses the procedural issues regarding the timeliness” of when it was submitted, which he states is two days after the deadline.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center sued the county’s elections board July 1 on behalf of seven residents claiming they were disenfranchised because the elections board never notified them about mistakes on their mail-in ballots ahead of the April 23 primary election. There were 259 mail-in ballots that weren’t counted during the primary because they were misdated or do not include signatures or dates on the outer envelopes, which are required by state election laws.
Neuman filed his order deciding the lawsuit on the afternoon of Aug. 23 and required the county to notify voters of errors by entering the mail-in ballots “accurate status” in the state’s voter database. While Neuman’s ruling did not require the county to offer specific ballot-curing options to correct mistakes on the outer envelope, it concluded that voters had the right to challenge their mail-in ballot’s status and vote with a provisional ballot at their polling place.
Kathleen Gallagher, an attorney representing the RNC, filed an appeal on Sept. 5 challenging the ruling, and included in her filing attorneys with the Pennsylvania Republican Party, along with Washington County and its special counsel David Berardinelli. While the order was mailed to Gallagher on Aug. 27, Neuman’s recent filing attached copies of emails and court dockets showing that she and all of the other parties were sent copies on Aug. 23, either through electronic servicing or email.
While most civil lawsuit appeals can be filed up to 30 days after a judge’s order, matters related to the elections code must be appealed within 10 days. In an attempt to expedite the process further, the state Supreme Court shortened that time period to three days, but that ruling did not take effect until Aug. 29, meaning the current filing still falls under the 10-day window.
If RNC’s appeal clock began on Aug. 24 – one day after Neuman’s order was filed and served to the parties – then the deadline to file would have fallen the day after Labor Day on Sept. 3.
“Therefore, there was no question that Republican Intervenors knew the ten day appeal period expired on September 3, 2024, when they filed their appeal on September 5, 2024,” Neuman wrote in his opinion.
The state Commonwealth Court is weighing whether to take the case after briefs were due last week. The state Department of State, along with the Democratic National Committee and Pennsylvania Democratic Party, also filed amicus briefs last week in the case.
If it accepts the case, the Commonwealth Court’s ruling – or a subsequent appeal to the state Supreme Court – could set statewide precedent in how counties across Pennsylvania handle ballot-curing measures for upcoming elections. It’s not known when the Commonwealth Court will make a decision on the appeal, although no update had been posted on the state’s online judicial database as of Friday afternoon.