Centre County elections board rules on disputed primary ballots, agrees to ‘count and segregate’ some undated returns

The Centre County Board of Elections on May 22 voted to count, partially count or reject several disputed mail and provisional ballots from the May 20 municipal primary while segregating a subset that election staff flagged under recent federal guidance.

Board members and elections staff said the decisions were intended to follow evolving court and state guidance while preserving challenge paths for campaigns and litigants. The board approved a package of adjudications after staff summarized problem ballots and legal context, and after members debated whether to count ballots with missing or incorrect dates and how to treat ballots that lacked secrecy envelopes or required witness information.

At the start of the canvass, elections staff walked the board through categories of problematic ballots recovered from mail, drop boxes and precincts. Melanie (elections staff) told the board that “7,124 that were returned,” referring to the total number of mail-in ballots the office received for the municipal primary. Staff then identified ballots they recommended for rejection (for example: “naked” ballots found outside secret envelopes and an outer envelope with no voter signature/witness) and ballots they recommended to count with conditions.

After discussion, the board approved the staff recommendations for the May 20 municipal primary ballot adjudication.…