Five Lehigh County voters get emergency injunction in appeal of case involving mail-in ballots
Update: The five voters filed an appeal with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the ACLU said. An emergency injunction was issued Sunday to prevent Lehigh County from certifying results for three judicial seats in Lehigh County Court as was scheduled on March 21. The matter has been referred to a three judge panel on an expedited basis. The ACLU said it is hoping a judge will issue a temporary injunction this week.
Five Lehigh County voters whose mail-in ballots for the Nov. 2 election lacked dates on their return envelopes will not have their votes counted under a summary judgment issued Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania.
In his 28-page opinion, Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. concluded the plaintiffs — Linda Miglori, Francis J. Fox, Richard E. Richards, Kenneth Ringer and Sergio Rivas — lacked standing to sue because it’s up to the U.S. attorney general to handle civil rights cases in voting matters.
He also said the handwritten date requirement does not infringe on their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and further said an undated envelope could potentially lead to fraud if someone else filled it in with a wrong date.
The case arose when David Ritter, a Republican candidate for Lehigh County judge in the 2021 election, challenged a decision by the Lehigh County Board of Elections to count 257 mail-in ballots that did not have the required date on the return envelopes required by the county. All of the disputed ballots had been timely received by the Lehigh County Board of Elections, the opinion said.
Leeson’s opinion concluded:
First, Plaintiffs lack the capacity to bring suit under § 10101. Second, the handwritten date requirement does not pose an undue burden on Plaintiffs’ right to vote under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Accordingly, summary judgment is entered in Defendants’ favor on both counts – the relief requested in Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is denied.
While Ritter was ahead of his closest challenger, Democrat Zachary Cohen, it was possible that Cohen could have surpassed him if the 257 votes were counted. That’s because Democrats tend to use mail-in ballots more than Republican voters.
Ritter lost his case before Lehigh County Judge Edward Reibman but won an appeal before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. Cohen then appealed before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which opted against hearing the case.
The ACLU, on behalf of five of the voters, appealed the matter to the federal court. In a statement on March 16, the ACLU said it has not yet decided whether to appeal.