Two voters in Pennsylvania are seeking to use the courts to force Butler County to accept their “cured” mail-in ballots, according to a filing by the Republican National Committee (RNC). The RNC, along with the Pennsylvania GOP, is intervening in the case as respondents. The petitioners, represented by the ACLU, sued Butler County after their mail-in ballots were rejected for lacking secrecy envelopes. State law requires secrecy envelopes for ballots to be counted.
The RNC alleges that the Pennsylvania State Department instructed voters with rejected mail-in ballots to vote provisionally to cure the ballots. However, Butler County rejected the provisional ballots. The RNC argues that only the state legislature can create a requirement for curing mail-in ballots and that courts cannot force counties to allow it.
The filing includes Butler County’s policy, which states that the county elections bureau cannot issue new ballots to voters due to deficiencies in their mailed ballots. The petitioners are seeking to force Butler County to count unauthorized provisional ballots as legally deficient ballots.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley stated that Butler County does not allow curing of ballots missing secrecy envelopes and that legally cast votes should be the only ones counted. The Pennsylvania State Department has a history of ignoring election laws, including a 2022 incident where the secretary claimed that counties should count all legal votes despite a Supreme Court ruling against counting undated mail-in ballots.
