Westmoreland elections board certifies more Nov. 3 ballots — but not 344 in undated envelopes

Westmoreland County on Monday certified the remainder of votes from the Nov. 3 election that are not subject to legal challenges.

That does not include 344 mail-in ballots that didn’t have a date written on them. Attorney Marco Attisano argued the board of elections should count those undated ballots in the same manner Allegheny County did last week after the state Supreme Court declined to reconsider its ruling that roughly 2,300 votes there could be added to the total.

The undated Allegheny ballots had been challenged by Republican state Senate candidate Nicole Ziccarelli of Lower Burrell, who is seeking to unseat incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, in the 45th Senatorial District that includes parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Each ballot is being scrutinized in the close race.

Attisano, who represents Brewster, asked Westmoreland’s board of elections, composed of the three commissioners, to follow what their counterparts in Allegheny did in certifying the undated ballots there.

The state Supreme Court wrote the missing dates were a technical violation of the Election Code but did not warrant disenfranchising voters. On the back of the envelope for mail-in ballots, voters are told to write the date, their address and sign and print their name.

A motion was made by Commissioner Gina Cerilli, a Democrat, to tally the 344 undated ballots. Her motion was not seconded.

The ballots were time-stamped both by the post office and elections bureau, she said.

“There are two dates on … those envelopes,” she said.

Cerilli asked Commissioners Doug Chew or Sean Kertes, both Republicans, to make a motion the board not count them so Brewster’s campaign could challenge the action in court.

“I think the statute is pretty clear that it requires the date and signature,” Chew said. “Why do we have to have a motion to say we’re going to follow the law as written?”

Cerilli pushed further, pointing to several legal challenges Ziccarelli’s campaign has made as a result of boards of elections decisions. Neither Chew nor Kertes responded.

“I think your silence from both of you speaks volumes right here,” Cerilli said.

Both James Gorman, attorney for the Ziccarelli campaign, and Bill Bretz, chairman of the county’s Republican party, urged the board to discard the undated ballots. Gorman argued that the Allegheny ruling had no mandate that Westmoreland follow suit and called the undated ballots “invalid votes.”

“There’s no order telling Westmoreland County to do anything,” he said.

Results were last updated on the county’s elections website Nov. 24. About 3,700 provisional ballots remain to be entered into the system, said JoAnn Sebastiani, director of elections. She hopes to have the process completed in the next couple weeks.

Other results that remain the subject of legal challenges, including ballots that were received after the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day, will not be added to the county’s results for now.