A nearly 4-hour hearing before a Commonwealth Court judge Tuesday ended without a ruling that could change the outcome of the Republican primary race for a U.S. Senate seat. The decision is over whether Pennsylvania counties must include mail ballots missing a handwritten date on their secrecy envelopes. Dr. Mehmet Oz leads David McCormick by 922-votes and that slim margin triggered a statewide recount which is underway. Attorneys for McCormick’s campaign argue that refusing to count any ballot by an eligible voter with a missing date runs counter to federal election laws. But lawyers for the Oz campaign along with the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania say counties not including those ballots are simply enforcing the voting rules. The state Attorney General’s Office believes the dating in question doesn’t matter and that “all legal voters should have the votes counted.” The judge says she will issue an opinion and order as quickly as possible. Meanwhile….The Supreme Court has put a hold on a lower court ruling that said election officials in Pennsylvania must count mail-in ballots from voters who failed to fill in the date on their ballot envelopes.
