WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in support of a Republican who lost a race for Lehigh County judge by just five votes this year in an appeal that will vacate a lower court's ruling.
But it will not change the outcome of the election.
- The U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-2 to vacate a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that supported counting the undated ballots
- The ruling will not change the outcome of the Lehigh County judicial race
- But it will prevent the earlier ruling from being used as a precedent
Justices granted a request from judicial candidate David Ritter and voted 7-2 to vacate a ruling from the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had supported the counting of mail-in ballots that had no dates marked on the outer envelope.
Ritter lost to Democrat Zachary Cohen in the race for a Lehigh County Court seat after -- out of 65,000 votes cast -- 257 mail-in ballots were found to be missing written dates on exterior mailing envelopes.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that those ballots should be counted.
The new finding does not change the outcome of the election and would only prevent the lower court’s ruling from being used as precedent in future cases.
"I am very pleased with the decision of the United States Supreme Court to vacate the prior decision of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals," Ritter said in a statement.
"While this will not change the status of the 2021 judicial race in Lehigh County, I am hopeful that no candidate will ever have to go through a situation like this again."
Ritter gave his "sincere thanks to my team of attorneys led by Cam Norris and Josh Voss, who never stopped fighting for me."
Asked about the ruling during an event this morning, Pennsylvania acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman initially said her office still was reviewing the decision to determine if it would have any impact on the upcoming election.
“We are reviewing that decision and we will provide guidance to counties accordingly,” Chapman said.
Her office later released a statement saying the ruling does not change how the state will handle such ballots.
"It provides no justification for counties to exclude ballots based on a minor omission, and we expect that counties will continue to comply with their obligation to count all legal votes," Chapman said in a statement.
"It provides no justification for counties to exclude ballots based on a minor omission, and we expect that counties will continue to comply with their obligation to count all legal votes."Statement from Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania's Acting Secretary of State
When litigation comes through that could affect voting in the state, Chapman argued that her office works closely with county voting boards to make sure elections are handled appropriately.
“I know there’s a lot of late-breaking news,” she said. “There’s litigation, and what my team does is, right away when we have an order, we contact the counties so they have a clear understanding of what the current state of the law is and what they need to do before this election.
“And that’s something we will continue to do and we expect the counties to follow the law and follow our guidance.”
Chapman also addressed an ongoing court case with Lehigh County over the monitoring and 24-hour usage of ballot dropboxes in Lehigh County, saying the state supports dropboxes.
“We do recommend that they are secured and they are monitored, whether that is by security cameras or other means,” Chapman said.
She noted that she sent Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin a letter this year expressing concerns over his usage of law enforcement officers as monitors of dropboxes in the primaries.
Chapman said she worried the presence of law enforcement officials in a monitoring capacity could feel intimidating to voters.
Ritter did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment on the Supreme Court ruling.
