Apr 18, 2024 By Mike Jones 4 min read

The American Civil Liberties Union is urging Washington County officials to reverse their decision to not allow people to fix mistakes with their mail-in or absentee ballots, which it claims will disenfranchise hundreds of voters in the April 23 primary.

In the letter sent Tuesday, the ACLU and Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center said they have “received complaints” from concerned residents about the county elections board’s decision last week to not allow ballot curing, meaning voters won’t know if their mail-in ballot is counted or not.

The nonprofit organizations also accused the county of “misreading” the recent U.S. Third Circuit Appeal Court’s ruling that stated undated or misdated mail-in ballots should not be counted, but does not dissuade county elections offices from notifying voters if there are fatal flaws. Such deficiencies typically include missing signatures or issues with the dates on the outer envelope.

The letter also alludes to a previous policy in Washington County to notify voters of issues with their ballots and allow them to “cure” the defect during the 2023 election.

“The Board’s decision to discontinue notice-and-cure practices not only risks needlessly disenfranchising potentially hundreds of eligible Washington County voters, but could ensnare the Board in litigation,” the letter states.

The letter is addressed to county solicitor Gary Sweat, but is copied to Commissioners Nick Sherman, Electra Janis and Larry Maggi, who make up the elections board, along with Elections Director Melanie Ostrander. Sherman and Janis, who are in the Republican majority, voted at the election board’s April 11 meeting to not allow ballot curing, while Maggi, the Democratic minority member, voted in favor of letting people correct errors.

The organizations estimate that hundreds of ballots may not be counted due to minor errors and asked the board to reconsider during this “critical window before Election Day” when there is still time to notify voters of mistakes. The immediate solution, the organizations suggest, is to mark ballots with fatal defects as “canceled” or “pending” in the state’s elections database so voters will know if there are problems that must be corrected.

“Whether a mail-in ballot transmitted in a return envelope that lacks a date or bears the wrong date can be counted is irrelevant to the Board’s decision whether to notify voters of facially obvious defects on the return envelopes or allow them to cure such defects,” the letter from the organization states. “Pennsylvania courts have held that the Election Code does not prohibit such policies, and therefore counties are free to implement a ‘notice and cure’ process without fear of violating the Election Code.”

Sweat said he reviewed the letter and contacted the commissioners about it, but has received no response from them as of Wednesday morning.

“I’ve explained to them the issues raised in that letter, and no one has gotten back to me that they want to revisit it, so as far I know the decision stands,” Sweat said.

Sweat added that he’s not concerned about a possible lawsuit that could be filed by the ACLU or others after the primary.

“That goes with the territory. When you have issues not everyone agrees with, that’s when you see these election appeals,” Sweat said. “I believe (the elections board is) within their rights for the decision they made. Can that be challenged? We’ll see.”

Local Democrats are also planning to put pressure on county officials, with the Washington County Democratic Committee urging people to attend today’s commissioners’ meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Crossroads Center to voice their support for ballot curing. Committee Chairwoman Christina Proctor said the majority of mail-in ballots come from Democrats, but she also noted that 64% of such ballots are sent by people ages 65 and older.

“In our opinion, this decision was a blatant decision to disenfranchise voters, specifically Democratic voters,” Proctor said.

She said “people were fired up” during the committee’s April 11 meeting after learning that the county’s elections board had decided to not notify voters about ballot errors. Proctor pointed to Greene and Fayette counties – both Republican-strongholds that are neighbors to Washington County – that are allowing ballot curing in some fashion.

“We want to apply public pressure so they reverse this decision,” Proctor said. “They’re literally throwing out legal votes, and that isn’t a good look.”

All mail-in and absentee ballots must be returned to the county’s elections office no later than 8 p.m. Tuesday.