Lisa Deeley, Chair of the Phildelphia City Commisioners, is warning the Republican-controlled state legislature that the latest court ruling rejecting “naked ballots” could “set PA up to be the subject of significant post-election legal controversy, the likes of which we have not seen since FL in 2000”:
In a letter to GOP state leg leaders, an election official warns 100K PA voters could be disenfranchised b/c of a ruling rejecting naked ballots. It "set PA up to be the subject of significant post-election legal controversy, the likes of which we have not seen since FL in 2000." pic.twitter.com/3ml96W00EX
— Holly Otterbein (@hollyotterbein) September 21, 2020
At issue is a state requirement that mail-in ballots be submitted in two envelopes, the envelope containing the ballot and a second envelope to maintain the voters anonymity. Ballots that are missing the secrecy envelope are referred to as “naked ballots”:
PA has an obsolete requirement that a mail-in ballot be in not one but 2 envelopes. The legislature could easily eliminate it, and it's not obvious that it will hurt Ds more than Rs, but Rs probably think it will https://t.co/1TnNwsAchb
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) September 21, 2020
So, Philadelphia — a very blue area — as counted these ballots in the past and now they will not:
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Philadelphia traditionally has counted so-called "naked" ballots, so the court's requirement for secrecy envelopes is totally newhttps://t.co/1kziLpTeGM
— Billy Penn (@billy_penn) September 21, 2020
From PhillyVoice:
To generate an estimate of the potential number of “naked ballots” at stake, Deeley looked at Philadelphia’s transcripts from the 2019 general election. The Philadelphia Board of Elections received 3,086 absentee ballots, including 197 “naked ballots” that were counted in accordance with the board’s precedent of doing so, barring objections that began surfacing at that time.
It is a really big deal:
This seems like a… really big deal https://t.co/6uWXRR2oDI
— Hanna Trudo (@HCTrudo) September 22, 2020
This could make hanging chads look like a cakewalk:
Look, regardless of the outcome, 80-100k or more PA ballots being tossed out on a technicality is a foreseeable train wreck. Perhaps more national news outlets should be picking this up? https://t.co/wX65ghFUgP
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 22, 2020
Get ready for chaos:
If you're not up to speed on this situation, here's a good explainer by @Elaijuh. The "naked ballot" rate has commonly been 5-6% in the past. Except this time 1) PA's mail ballot share is about to go up tenfold and 2) naked ballots won't count. https://t.co/7oB32JGopd
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 22, 2020
But what’s to fix? Just follow the requirement that’s been on the books for previous elections:
Btw, the chances of PA's GOP-led legislature fixing this potentially big issue – or passing a cure provision – before November? Slim to none.
The Trump campaign successfully sued at the PA Supreme Court to invalidate naked ballots – even though thousands were counted in June.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 21, 2020
You mean Dems will have to work for it? What a concept:
It's largely going to be up to Biden/Democrats to educate a lot of first-time mail voters in PA how to correctly cast a mail ballot in a secrecy envelope. Keep in mind, in 2018 only 4% of PA's vote was cast by mail!
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 21, 2020
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