It’s been a month since the Pennsylvania presidential primary election and there is still no winner in the contest for the GOP nomination in the 117th Legislative District.
Incumbent Michael Cabell (R-Luzerne) trails challenger Jamie Walsh by a mere three votes with contests in the Commonwealth Court left to possibly decide the final outcome.
On Wednesday, judges from the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas sent their opinions for denying election ballot tallying requests from both candidates to Commonwealth Court, as required for appeals.
Cabell wishes to count a provisional election-day ballot, while rejecting another. He also appealed a county court ruling that denied him write-in votes. If a candidate’s name is on the ballot, write-in votes are normally excluded from the count.
Walsh also looks to overturn a county court decision that denied his request to discard six already-tallied mail ballots because the voters in question did not fill in the last two digits of the year in the blank boxes on the outer return envelope.
As part of a state redesign of mail ballots that took effect in all counties for this primary, the “20” start of the year was pre-filled, but voters were supposed to write in “24” at the end.
The candidates now must file a “statement of issues to be presented on appeal” to Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg by noon Thursday for Cabell and noon Friday for Walsh.
The schedule also calls for both the candidates and the county’s five-citizen election board to simultaneously file briefs on the merits of the appeal. The brief filing deadlines are 4 p.m. on Monday for Cabell and 4 p.m. Wednesday for Walsh.
Under the posted schedule, both cases will be decided based on briefs without oral argument, although that is open to change.