The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled on Monday (January 3), that Common Pleas Court Judge, Edward Reibman, erred when he instructed the Lehigh County Board of Elections to count 257 mail-ballots in last November’s election – ballots on which voters’ signatures did not appear on the outside envelope.
The litigants in this case are Democrat, Zachary Cohen and Republican, David Ritter. They are competing for a poistion on the Lehigh County Common Please Court. Ritter has a 74 vote lead over Cohen. However, if the court were to allow the 257 contested ballots to be counted, it is expected that Cohen would overtake Ritter’s lead.
Click above to read the full decision.
The Commonwealth Court’s decision was split along party lines, with Republicans Patricia McCullough and Christine Fizzano Cannon ruling that the un-dated mail-ballots cannot be counted. Democrat Micahel Hl. Wojcik dissented.
Cohen’s attorney, Adam Bonin Tweeted he would be appealing the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which currently has a 5-2 Democratic majority.