Before Election Day arrived, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, started reaching out to voters whose mail-in ballots didn’t have the needed signature on the envelope, offering them the chance to “cure” the ballot and make sure it could be counted. That was business as usual for the county, which has done the same in previous elections. Republicans didn’t object in past cycles or even last week as county officials started reaching out to voters about curing their ballots.
But with the election close and Pennsylvania a possible tipping point state, Republicans filed suit against the practice on Election Day. At a Wednesday hearing, U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage, a George W. Bush appointee, was … skeptical. “How does this affect the integrity of the election?” he said, not once but three times. Specifically, “Wasn’t the legislative intent of the [election law] we are talking about to franchise, not disenfranchise, voters?”
Republican lawyers argued that it was totally fine to say that a voter whose absentee ballot couldn't be counted as submitted could neither fix that ballot nor cast a provisional ballot. Savage pinpointed the problem with that argument, saying “It counts as your vote, but your vote is not counted.”
This lawsuit focuses on less than 100 votes—that’s the number of people who took Montgomery County up on its offer to let them cure their ballots. That’s how close Republicans are apparently concerned Pennsylvania will be, or how dedicated they are to making sure that the fewest possible votes count.
The Republican argument centers on the fact that some Pennsylvania counties don’t offer to let voters cure their ballots, and in typical Republican fashion, they want to disenfranchise more people rather than giving everyone this opportunity.
Republican lawyers are supposed to file a supplemental brief Thursday morning, with the county responding on Friday, after which Savage could rule.