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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

NorCo Elections Comm'n Continues Review of Challenged Provisional Ballots

Following a day-long session on Friday, Northampton County's Elections Commission will continue its review of challenged provisional ballots both today and on Wednesday. On Monday, they will vote on certification of the results. 

Republicans filed 480 challenges to Democratic and Republican provisional ballots, including many filed by ethnic minorities and persons of color. Democrats filed none. 

Attorney Gary Asteak, representing the Pa. Democratic Party, said he was astonished at the number of voters who skipped work or called in late to make sure their vote was counted. He was also impressed by elections workers who told the Board they neglected to fill out portions of the ballot envelopes correctly. 

The Board eventually decided that it should not hold voters responsible for mistakes made by pollworkers. But provisional ballots filed by voters who failed to sign the exterior envelope twice,were discounted. 

Republicans even challenged handwriting, although they only succeeded on one of those challenges.  

Asteak was particularly impressed by a voter who moved to Allentown recently. He was still in the grace period in which he should have been able to vote in NorCo. The voter was scheduled in the morning, then told to come back in the afternoon. The Board agreed to accept his ballot. 

He turned to Asteak and said, "Biden 2020!" 

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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 17, 2020 at 12:56 AM

    Rick Hasen's legal blog on the left margin contains an interesting post of Breaking News. Trump's new legal counsel (as of Monday) in the federal PA case requested a continuance at *7:40PM* Monday evening! Complains that he is new on the case, and he isn't ready. Meanwhile the counsel that withdrew released a statement stating that counsel changing is common and this is no big deal. Seems like it is on the eve of an important hearing. The judge said FU and we're holding the hearing as scheduled on Tuesday (today). So much winning.

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  2. Bernie O'HareNovember 17, 2020 at 2:18 AM

    That attorney is Marc Scaringi, who sued over the shutdown and was shut down. He is a radio talk show host and I thought his arguments in that matter could have been better. Now he's being thrown into the lion's den in a matter that he himself has previously said has little merit. That is why I expect to see the case dismissed soon.

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  3. AnonymousNovember 17, 2020 at 8:46 AM

    I don't understand this grace period thing. I never heard of such a thing?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bernie O'HareNovember 17, 2020 at 8:53 AM

    That's bc you know nothing of election law. That has always been part of HAVA.

    ReplyDelete

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