Ballot-counting has thrust PA counties in the spotlight. Here’s what happened in Centre County
Centre County was one of a handful of Pennsylvania counties thrust into the spotlight over ballot-counting decisions, drawing fresh attention nationwide and public statements that were sometimes inaccurate or painted an incomplete picture.
After the state Supreme Court on Monday ordered counties not to count mail-in ballots that lack a correct handwritten date on the return envelope, national media outlets occasionally lumped Centre County in with three southeastern counties that did just that.
The association drew a rare public statement from Centre County’s board of elections. Board Chair Amber Concepcion, a Democrat, said during Tuesday’s commissioners meeting that she wanted to “set the record straight.”
Centre County did not have any undated mail-in ballots brought before its elections board when ballots were counted. Steve Dershem, the lone Republican on the three-member board, described any reports to the contrary “very disturbing.”
“We were thrown into a bucket of soup with counties that obviously thumbed their nose at what would be considered reasonable decisions from our state Supreme Court. That was not us,” Dershem said. “Somehow we got put into that situation. We were called lawless. I would tell you that of this group, there was never, ever — and has ever been — any indication that what we’ve tried to do was nothing more than make sure the citizens of Centre County’s votes were counted.
“We are committed to that and we will continue to be committed to that.”
At a public meeting Nov. 7 and later in court, Republicans challenged only three ballots that were approved by the board to be counted. The GOP later withdrew the protest of two ballots and its challenge to a third was tossed Friday by a Centre County judge because it was filed too late.
Of the two that were withdrawn in litigation, one ballot had too many characters in the “date” boxes and the other belonged to a voter who changed a digit.
The other challenge, which was thrown out on procedural grounds by Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine, used the European or military style of writing dates — day-month-year rather than month-day-year.
“If you know anybody who’s in the military, that’s what they’re ingrained to do. They write the date a certain way,” Dershem said. “I’m not going to disenfranchise somebody because they used military ballot language. Until somebody specifically says to me that that’s wrong, I’m going to consider it right. I’m not going to disenfranchise those folks.”
Attorney Thomas W. King III told the Centre Daily Times on Saturday that he is not appealing Grine’s ruling. Centre County’s elections board has said guidelines from the Pennsylvania Department of State deem that style to be an acceptable format.
No other challenges to mail-in ballots remain, the county said Tuesday.
Dershem, who has overseen elections in Centre County for about two decades, said the board takes ballot-counting “incredibly serious.” He described it as the commissioners’ most important job in the county.
“We think about all the services that we provide, but the one service we provide to our community and to our county is to make sure that we run fair and honest elections,” Dershem said. “All three of us are committed to that goal.”
He and fellow board member Mark Higgins, a Democrat, each pleaded for state lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, to improve the state’s election laws, which have left each major party and election officials dissatisfied.
Dershem specifically said he wants to “move on” from courts issuing decisions in the days before or after an election, while Higgins advocated for what is known as precanvassing — more time to process mail-in ballots before polls close.
“It’s been a rough month, but I think we’re finally emerging,” Higgins said.
In the U.S. Senate race, Republican David McCormick led incumbent Democrat Bob Casey by about 17,500 votes as of Tuesday, inside the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law.
In Centre County, unofficial results show Casey with a more than 2,300-vote lead over McCormick.
Counties must complete the recount by noon Nov. 26. Results are to be published Nov. 27. The Pennsylvania Department of State estimated the recount will cost more than $1 million in taxpayer money.
In each of the previous four times a recount was carried out, the initial results of the election were affirmed.