Towamencin Democratic Supervisor Kofi Osei's Case Makes History with his loss: U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Strikes Down PA Undated Ballots
The 10am Montgomery County Elections Board meeting will likely be consumed with demands that Towamencin Republican Rich Marino be re-instated
On March 27, 2024, a U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the lower court in the U.S. Third Circuit, plus a ruling in another, related case at the (Democratic majority) PA Supreme Court. Those earlier rulings allowed undated mail-in ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania. On background, there were 10,000 undated mail-in ballots in the 2020 election, giving Biden his win over Trump.
This new ruling by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals says the Commonwealth should not count the votes of those mail-in ballots without a hand-written date on the outside of the mail-in ballot envelope. Here’s a brief but informative NPR article on the subject.
What’s not being reported as well is the role that Towamencin township Board of Supervisors had in bringing this case to the U.S. Third Circuit.
Back in November, Democrat Kofi Osei, who championed Towamencin’s winning Home Rule efforts, and is vehemently against the sale of the Towamencin’s water treatment plant to American Water, won against incumbent Towamencin Republican Supervisor Rich Marino by drawing straws at the Elections Board. Why were they drawing straws? Because after counting mail-in ballots that did not have a date written on the Voter’s Declaration Envelope, the election between the two men was a absolute 50-50 tie. And so there was a drawing of straws, and Osei drew the long straw. (If you need a refresher about which piece of the ballot is the Voter’s Declaration Envelope that requires a handwritten date on it, here’s a great article about how to avoid a “naked ballot”.)
Even though Towmencin Supervisor is an unpaid position, the Republican National Committee saw Rich Marino’s case as a perfect one to fund. The RNC’s aim was to get the courts to agree that undated mail-in ballots should not be counted in Pennsylvania. Osei’s side of the case - that undated mail-in ballots should be counted in PA - was funded by the ACLU.
The Democratic-majority PA Supreme Court, in an ealier case, had already decided that the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which says a person's right to vote cannot be denied for "an error or omission" that is "not material" in determining voting eligibility, meant that undated ballots could be counted.
The case was brought by the RNC to the U.S. Third Circuit, where they lost. It was then appealed by the RNC to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, that judge reversed the lower court’s ruling, handing a victory to Marino and the RNC. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals hung its decision on those words in the 1964 Civil Rights Act “voting eligibility.” The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that being eligible to vote is separate from actually voting itself. Therefore, an impediment to actually voting can stand, whereas an impediment to register is still not allowed under the Civil Rights Act. In my opinion, this is a terrible ruling. It adheres to the exact wording of the law but not the spirit of it, as if laws were written by omnipotent angels who could see every permutation of everything that would happen in the future.
The case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case before November - especially since, had this rule been in place in 2020, Donald Trump would have won Pennsylvania.
This whole bru-ha-ha stemmed from what happened between the two candidates for Towamencin Supervisor.
Bringing it back to local politics, this will likely be the main topic of discussion at the 10am Montgomery County Board of Elections meeting today, as angry Republicans storm the meeting to insist that the election was “fraudulent” and demand that the Board immediately reinstate the former incumbent Marino. My guess is that the Pennsylvania Secretary of State has to de-certify the election, and so at this point the matter is out of the hands of the Montgomery Board of Elections. But the Republicans attending the meeting today will just want to vociferously make a point about how they were “right” and the election was “fraudulent.” Please attend by Zoom if you can to support our already beleaguered new Montgomery County Democratic Commissioners.