美国国家公共电台 NPR--How undated ballots could affect Pennsylvania's GOP Senate race and voters' rights

How undated ballots¹ could affect Pennsylvania's GOP Senate race and voters' rights

Transcript²

They arrived on time to be counted but in envelopes that were missing one detail — a handwritten date.

Now, according to the secretary of state's office, some 860 undated mail-in ballots from Pennsylvania's Republican voters are caught in the middle of a legal fight over May's tight GOP primary election for an open U.S. Senate seat.

It's the latest twist of a knotty³ saga⁴ in the key swing state over what to do with ballots received in return envelopes that are missing handwritten dates next to voters' signatures.

The fate of these controversial ballots could have ripple⁵ effects on the election in November and beyond, in addition to the voting rights of Pennsylvania's more than 8.7 million registered voters.

The accelerated rise of voting by mail since the start of the coronavirus pandemic has brought intense scrutiny⁶ of the technicalities of casting ballots, especially among Republicans. For last year's primary, GOP state lawmakers threatened to impeach⁷ Philadelphia's election officials if they did not reverse their initial decision to count undated ballots.

Over the past couple of years, a tangle⁸ of litigation at both state and federal courts has left the local election officials who run Pennsylvania's elections scrambling⁹ to keep up with the latest rulings, as well as guidance from the state's top election official, a role currently held by acting¹⁰ Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman.

On May 25, Chapman officially ordered a statewide recount of votes for the race led by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity¹¹ TV doctor backed by former President Donald Trump¹², and David McCormick, a former CEO of a hedge fund.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Oz leads McCormick by fewer than 1,000 votes.

Those two frontrunners have headed to state court in a dispute over whether ballots missing handwritten dates should be counted. In a move signaling disagreement within the GOP on undated ballots, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania are supporting Oz's position not to tally¹³ them. McCormick so far has led among counted mail ballots.

A recent federal court ruling in a related but separate legal fight — over 257 undated ballots for a 2021 election in Pennsylvania's Lehigh County — prompted Chapman to advise local election officials across the state who are still finalizing¹⁴ the May 17 primary results to set aside undated ballots for review.

On Tuesday, U.S. Supreme¹⁵ Court Justice Samuel Alito ordered that the lower federal court's ruling be put on hold while the high court awaits a formal appeal of the ruling.

Here's what else you need to know:

Are handwritten dates required for mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania?

Yes, voters are required to "fill out, date and sign" a declaration printed on an official envelope for returning mail-in ballots, according to Pennsylvania state law.

But the date requirement has come under challenge in multiple court fights that have raised the question of whether missing a handwritten date is enough to disqualify a person's vote — including in lawsuits¹⁷ related to the 2020 election.

How did undated ballots come up in the 2020 election legal fights?

The counting of thousands of undated ballots that were received on time and came with no evidence of fraud were challenged in Philadelphia by Trump's reelection campaign and in Pennsylvania's Allegheny County by a Republican state Senate candidate, Nicole Ziccarelli.

The state's Supreme Court ultimately ruled to count the undated ballots in 2020 after a surge of mail-in voting during the pandemic. For the high court's majority opinion, the justices wrote that while not including a handwritten date on the back of the return envelope is technically¹⁸ a violation¹⁹ of state law, it does not "warrant the wholesale²⁰ disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvania voters."

As part of the complicated ruling, Justice David Wecht, who was effectively the tiebreaker in the divided court, issued a separate opinion that said undated ballots should be tallied²¹ in 2020 but not for future elections.

"I cannot say with any confidence that even diligent²² electors were adequately informed as to what was required to avoid the consequence of disqualification in this case," Wecht wrote, adding that "it would be unfair to punish voters for the incidents of systemic growing pains."

How did undated ballots end up in court again last year?

A Republican candidate running to be a judge in Pennsylvania's Lehigh County, David Ritter, challenged the counting of 257 undated ballots in 2021. The state Supreme Court did not weigh in on the case, and that allowed a lower court's ruling to stand: Those undated ballots should not be tallied, the state's Commonwealth²³ Court concluded in January, citing in part Wecht's opinion from 2020.

Later in January, however, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit¹⁶ in federal court on behalf of a group of Lehigh County voters whose undated ballots were disqualified. Not tallying²⁴ undated ballots, the ACLU lawyers argued, violates the Civil Rights Act, which bans denying a person's right to vote for a reason that is "not material" in determining whether that person qualifies under state law to vote.

In May, a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the voters backed by the ACLU, overturning a lower court's ruling and ordering the counting of the undated ballots for the 2021 Lehigh County election.

In their opinion released on May 27, the 3rd Circuit panel noted²⁵ that the state's deputy secretary for elections and commissions, Jonathan Marks, has confirmed that a handwritten date is not used to determine a voter's eligibility²⁶ and that the Lehigh County Board of Elections did count ballots with incorrect dates.

"If the substance of the string of numbers does not matter, then it is hard to understand how one could claim that this requirement has any use in determining a voter's qualifications," U.S. Circuit Judge Theodore McKee wrote on behalf of the panel.

On May 27, attorneys for Ritter asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put the 3rd Circuit's ruling on hold while they prepare to formally appeal that lower court's order.

What does all this mean for the recount in Pennsylvania's Republican Senate primary?

In a race as close as the Oz and McCormick contest, every vote counts. And whether or not the courts allow undated ballots to be included in the recount could be the determining factor in who goes up against the Democratic nominee²⁷, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, in November.

Recount results are due by June 8. Meanwhile, attorneys for both GOP Senate frontrunners appeared before the state's Commonwealth Court on Tuesday for a hearing over McCormick's emergency request for an order requiring undated ballots to be counted.

1 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 knotty   

adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的

参考例句：

• Under his leadership,many knotty problems were smoothly solved.在他的领导下，许多伤脑筋的问题都迎刃而解。
• She met with a lot of knotty problems.她碰上了许多棘手的问题。

4 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

5 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

6 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

7 impeach   

v.弹劾；检举

参考例句：

• We must impeach the judge for taking bribes.我们一定要检举法官收受贿赂。
• The committee decided to impeach the President.委员会决定弹劾总统。

8 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

9 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

11 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

12 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

13 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

14 finalizing   

vt.完成（finalize的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• You may edit registered information any time during the finalizing period. 您可以在规定期限内随时编辑修改注册资料。 来自互联网
• Natsun Trimming & Ironing, Finalizing the Perfection. 40南山整烫，完美在此定格。 来自互联网

15 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

16 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

17 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

18 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

19 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

20 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

21 tallied   

v.计算，清点( tally的过去式和过去分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合

参考例句：

• The girl tallied them with her eyes for a moment. 新娘用目光把这些化妆品清点了一下。 来自教父部分
• His account of the accident tallied with hers. 他对事故的陈述和她的相吻合。 来自辞典例句

22 diligent   

adj.勤勉的，勤奋的

参考例句：

• He is the more diligent of the two boys.他是这两个男孩中较用功的一个。
• She is diligent and keeps herself busy all the time.她真勤快，一会儿也不闲着。

23 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

24 tallying   

v.计算，清点( tally的现在分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合

参考例句：

• In 2007 the state set a U.S. record, tallying 141 twisters. 该州在2007年以总计出现了141个龙卷风而创下了一个美国记录。 来自互联网
• We charge extra fee at 100% of the rates of tallying fees. 我们按理货收费率的100%收取附加费。 来自互联网

25 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

26 eligibility   

n.合格，资格

参考例句：

• What are the eligibility requirements? 病人被选参加试验的要求是什么？ 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望
• Eligibility for HINARI access is based on gross national income (GNI). 进入HINARI获取计划是依据国民总收入来评定的。

27 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。