The state Supreme Court is reviewing a Washington County judge’s order in the recent ballot-curing lawsuit, and it could soon make a ruling that has statewide ramifications. On Saturday, the high court agreed to hear the appeal by the Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania GOP challenging Judge Brandon Neuman’s ruling – which was recently affirmed by Commonwealth Court – requiring Washington County’s election board to notify voters who have issues with their mail-in ballots and allow them to vote provisionally. A decision affirming or rejecting Neuman’s order could have wide-ranging effects and change how all 67 counties handle notifying voters of disqualifying errors with their mail-in ballots – such as missing signatures or dates – and what rights those voters have in casting a provisional ballot.
The Commonwealth Court’s decision on Sept. 23 upholding Neuman’s order from a month earlier only applied to Washington County. The RNC and state GOP on Sept.
27 appealed the Commonwealth Court’s decision, and the Supreme Court accepted it on Saturday. That was the same day it announced it would not hear competing appeals by Republicans and the ACLU of Pennsylvania asking the high court to use its “king’s bench” authority to settle questions about mail-in ballots once and for all. “Petitioners .
.. could have pursued these challenges in a more timely fashion,” Justice Kevin Kevin Brobson wrote in his concurring opinion.
“Deciding these quest.