PHILADELPHIA — Top Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature threatened Friday to impeach Philadelphia elections officials if they stand by their decision to count undated mail ballots from last week’s primary election.
A four-justice majority of the seven-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in a complicated decision last year that voters must sign and date envelopes when returning their mail ballots. Republicans pointed to that case Friday, saying counties must reject the undated ballots.
In a letter to city commissioners Lisa Deeley and Omar Sabir, the two Democrats who voted this week to count undated ballots, the lawmakers demanded that “you immediately rescind your endorsement of this unlawful action.”
“So there can be no misunderstanding — failure to promptly conform to Pennsylvania law will leave us no choice but to seek your removal from office using the authority vested to the House of Representatives,” the legislative leaders wrote.
The letters were signed by state House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster); seven Republican House leaders, including Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R., Centre) and Rep. Martina White, the head of the Philadelphia GOP; and Rep. Seth Grove (R., York), the chair of the House State Government Committee and lead lawmaker handling election issues.
Philadelphia elections officials voted 2-1 Wednesday to count the ballots, with Republican commissioner Al Schmidt voting to reject them. Schmidt said the law and the court ruling required him to do so. Officials in the four suburban counties — Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery — said they are also counting undated mail ballots.
Deeley accused Republicans of seeking to “sow doubt in the electoral process while scoring political points at Philadelphia’s expense.”
“It is unbecoming of the House Republican leaders to try and extort another elected official to change their vote,” she said in a statment. “There is a formal process of appealing decisions from Boards of Elections that is prescribed in the Election Code, and we have yet to receive any appeal – nor am I aware of an appeal in any county.
Sabir said he had not yet read the letter.
Impeachment formally accuses an elected official of a crime or other misconduct, and the Pennsylvania state constitution lays out a process similar to how it works in Congress. The state House can introduce articles of impeachmen that are then passed by a simple majority vote. The state Senate then holds a trial requiring a two-thirds majority to convict, which can result in removing someone from office and preventing them from holding future office.
Republicans in Harrisburg control both chambers and would have enough votes to impeach if their caucus remained unified, but would unlikely be able to muster the super-majority needed to remove Deeley and Sabir from office. It remains to be seen if Republicans will actually move forward with an impeachment.
While other counties are also counting the undated ballots, Republicans’ focus is currently on Philadelphia, according to a person familiar with lawmakers’ discussions. “Hopefully that sends a message to the rest of the counties,” this person said.
A spokesperson for House Republicans declined to comment beyond the letter.
Impeachment is rare and typically used in cases of severe misconduct by a public official.
The state Supreme Court ruled in November that undated ballots be counted for the 2020 election. Three justices interpreted state election law to allow counting undated ballots, while three justices said the law didn’t allow it. The seventh, Justice David Wecht, was the deciding vote, saying undated ballots should be counted in 2020 but rejected in the future — once voters had better instructions about dating ballots and the consequences for failing to do so.
Last year was the first in which any Pennsylvania voter could cast a mail ballot.
Several election lawyers in both parties agreed the ruling meant unsigned or undated ballots should be thrown out in future elections. Adam Bonin, a Democratic election lawyer in Philadelphia, said this week that the decision left room for interpretation.
Matt Haverstick, a Republican election lawyer, disagreed, saying the bottom line is that four justices agreed mail ballots need dates to count.
“It’s flagrantly wrong, it’s a clear violation of the law,” Haverstick said. “There’s no viable legal argument I can think of to get around the fact that four justices believe... that ballots without dates don’t count.”
