Bucks County added 3,100 votes to election tallies. How many will be challenged?

Members of the Bucks County Board of Elections approved the canvassing of more than 3,000 additional ballots cast for the Nov. 5 general election on Tuesday.

Final totals, and their potential impact, likely won’t be known until later this month.

Board members are to reconvene their meeting Thursday to hear attorneys representing Republicans and Democrats issue legal challenges to the 2,774 provisional ballots that board members voted to canvas and count, as well as 1,726 rejected ballots.

Also still uncounted are at least 1,600 overseas and military ballots, a little more than half the number the county sent out.  The deadline for those ballots to arrive at the board of elections office was 5 p.m. Nov. 12.

What are provisional ballots anyway Will uncounted ballots change election outcomes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania?

There are only two close races where provisional ballots — once a rare, last-resort option for voters — and other uncounted ballots could have an impact on Bucks County elections outcomes.

The unofficial election results show President-elect Donald Trump with a 512-vote lead over Democrat Kamala Harris in Bucks County, which would make him the first GOP presidential candidate since 1988 to win Bucks County. A Bucks County victory for Harris would have no impact on the overall Pennsylvania win for Trump.

Three-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has roughly a 1,200-vote advantage in Bucks County over GOP businessman David McCormick, who was leading overall with at least 40,000 votes as of Sunday.

McCormick has filed two lawsuits challenging provisional votes in Philadelphia. A GOP attorney representing McCormick also intends to challenge provisional votes in Bucks County.

Bucks County Board of Elections opts to canvas undated, wrongly dated ballots

At the Tuesday meeting the three Bucks County commissioners, who generally serve as the board of elections, agreed to canvas and hold separate 406 mail-in and absentee ballots, which will be counted in the final totals if Pennsylvania courts allow it.

All but two were incorrectly or undated mail-in ballots, which will be canvassed and held separately on what is called target card, so they can be easily tracked if the courts rule they cannot be included in final vote totals.

The vote to approve those ballots fell along party lines, with the two Democrat commissioners voting to accept them. Deputy Solicitor Dan Grieser warned, however, that it could trigger a lawsuit, as has happened in other Pennsylvania counties.

“I can’t vote to reject them,” Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said.

Commissioner Chairman Robert Harvie agreed that it was a “pretty stupid thing” to disenfranchise a voter over a date, noting that mail-in ballots can be tracked from the point when they were printed.

“I’d rather be on the side of counting ballots,” Harvie added.

Greiser said he did not believe the Pennsylvania courts would be issuing any rulings involving undated or wrongly dated mail-in ballots before the Nov. 25 deadline to submit final certified election results.

Board members voted to reject another 300 absentee or mail-in ballots mostly because they lacked either a voter signature or secrecy envelope.

More than 4,000 ballots were segregated after it was learned a typo in a Green Party candidate’s name on the ballots in a Levittown precinct prevented the machines from counting them. Those ballots were hand-reviewed, board members said, and they will be counted in the final certified total.

What provisional ballots did the board agree to count, reject

The largest chunk of the 4,500 provisional ballots, which the board unanimously approved for canvassing and counting, came from 2,228 voters who voted in-person, but failed to turn in the mail-in ballot they received at the polls.

Another 10 voters who cast provisional ballots after they were issued absentee ballots that they didn't complete and return to the board are also to have their votes canvassed and counted.

The second-largest block of provisional ballots approved for canvassing were for 142 voters who voted in-person after they were notified that their mail-in ballot had a deficiency.

An additional 71 voters cast provisional ballots after going to the wrong polling place, though it was within the same state legislative district where they live. Those votes also were approved to be counted in full.

Board members unanimously agreed to canvas 84 provisional ballots with missing signatures from the minority inspector, judge of elections or both at a poll, which Greiser said is allowed because it was a poll worker's error.

The roughly 1,700 provisional ballots the board voted to reject included: those from voters who turned in ballots without secrecy envelopes, those from voters who didn't have identification to show at the polls, those from voters registered to vote in another county and those from voters who weren't registered to vote.

What ballot challenges can you expect to see on Thursday

Attorneys for the two major political parties on Tuesday indicated which ballot categories they intend to dispute on Thursday.

Dawn Burke, who represents the Democrats, told the board she intends to challenge provisional votes in five categories, including ballots with missing secrecy envelopes and ballots from voters whose names were missing in poll books or who were listed as not registered to vote.

Burke also indicated she will challenge any other category the GOP challenges.

Attorney Walter Zimolong, who represents the Pennsylvania GOP and GOP Senate candidate David McCormick, said he will be challenging the 404 mail-in and absentee ballot votes with undated or incorrectly dated envelopes.

Zimolong also said he would be challenging more than 300 provisional ballots, including those from voters who were notified that their mail-in ballot was rejected and who cast a provisional ballot, and ballots where the minority inspector or judge of elections failed to sign secrecy envelopes.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Will undated or incorrectly dated ballots be counted in Bucks County?