The Butler County Board of Elections is joining the Republican National Committee in a petition to challenge a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on mail-in ballots.
The vote was not unanimous, as Republican commissioners Leslie Osche and Kim Geyer voted in favor, while Democrat Kevin Boozel was opposed.
“I have not seen the writ and I don’t know what’s in it,” Boozel said about his dissenting vote. “I want to stay out of the political piece.”
The board will now join a writ of certiorari that is being filed to the U.S. Supreme Court about a lawsuit surrounding two voters in the county, who cast provisional ballots after their mail-in ballot was incorrectly filled out.
After the primary election, the county’s computation board determined that the ballots should not count. But, that decision was appealed to the State Supreme Court, which ultimately decided in favor of the voters.
“I’m standing behind our appointed computation board and defend their decision,” Osche said.
That led the board of elections voting 2-1 once again to join the RNC in asking the Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the ruling just prior to this past fall’s election. However, the Supreme Court opted not to issue the stay at the time.
The RNC is filing the writ this time around, believing the court may hear the case since it is not a federal election.
Despite the differing opinions about joining the writ of certiorari, all commissioners agreed that the state legislature has been absent in figuring out solutions to ambiguities in election law.
“Unfortunately this is what we’re left with. [County commissioners] have taken all the heat and the courts are put in a tough position to rule on these cases,” Osche said. “The legislature needs to fix the election code. But, [state lawmakers] don’t understand the law.”
