A new RNC lawsuit would pause Montco mail voting and force a hand count of ballots already distributed
Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick joined the RNC in a lawsuit that seeks to pause mail voting in Montgomery County and force hand counting of some ballots.
The Republican National Committee and U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick are suing to temporarily stop Montgomery County from distributing and collecting mail ballots.
The suit, which was filed Friday, also demands that the county hand count all mail ballots that have already been distributed, a process that could add several days to the vote counting process in November.
In a statement Monday, the Department of State, which issued the Pennsylvania directives the RNC cites in its complaint, called the lawsuit frivolous and said Montgomery County did everything required before sending its ballots.
Montgomery County was the first in the Philadelphia area to begin distributing mail ballots when the county election board announced last Tuesday that ballots were available, just one day after the Pennsylvania Department of State certified the candidates on November’s general election ballot.
In a lawsuit filed in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas alongside local Republicans, the RNC argued that the county’s quick start to mail voting violated Pennsylvania election law because ballots were distributed before the county began state-mandated logic and accuracy testing on election systems.
That testing is required before an election begins. By sending ballots before that testing, the RNC argued, Montgomery County began the general election.
“Remarkably, Defendants were aware that the L&A testing had not been completed on September 17, 2024 and public stated it would not commence until September 19, 2024,” the lawsuit said.
As a result, the RNC wants a Montgomery County judge to block the county from distributing ballots until the testing has been completed and to set aside and hand count any mail ballots that have already gone out and are returned.
However, the Department of State said the testing the RNC is referring to must be done 15 days before Election Day, not before ballots are printed and sent.
“The lawsuit filed Friday against Montgomery County is frivolous, and Montgomery County’s board of elections did everything required before printing ballots with the certified candidate list,” Geoff Morrow, a spokesperson for the department, said. “Pennsylvania’s elections are free, fair, safe, and secure because of the many safeguards — such as L&A testing — that surround our voting processes and systems before, during, and after Election Day.”
Montgomery County has become a key Democratic stronghold in recent years that helped swing the state to President Joe Biden in 2020. Turnout in the county could play a major role in determining the outcome of both the presidential and Senate contests.
A spokesperson for Montgomery County said in a statement the RNC had leveled “baseless assertions” in both a letter sent last week and the lawsuit.
“Montgomery County is fully complying with the Pennsylvania Election Code and Department of State directives. The 115,000 Montgomery County voters who have requested mail-in ballots already will receive those ballots soon,” said Megan Alt, a spokesperson for Montgomery County.
Montgomery County solicitor Ben Field said in a Friday letter that the RNC was conflating rules around preparation of ballots and testing of election equipment. All testing required to prepare and distribute ballots, Field said, occurred prior to sending the ballots.
Alt said Montgomery County had completed the required ballot acceptance testing and logic and accuracy testing on the scanners used on mail ballots prior to mailing ballots.
If the RNC’s lawsuit is successful it could severely slow down the counting process in Pennsylvania’s third largest county.
Montgomery County officials said last week they planned to distribute roughly 115,000 mail ballots beginning last week. Any of those ballots returned would have to be hand counted, a process that takes far longer than machine counting.
In April, the county was slow to distribute mail ballots and county officials have said they worked diligently to resolve those issues, becoming one of the fastest counties to distribute ballots ahead of the general election.