By Jasper Ward
(Reuters) – A Pennsylvania judge on Friday ordered the Erie County Board of Elections to issue ballots for up to 17,000 voters who had not received requested mail-in ballots ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
The state’s Democratic Party filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the county board of elections, challenging its failure to send out between 10,000 and 20,000 requested mail-in ballots.
In the lawsuit, the party said the failure led to “substantial delays and hardships in casting ballots” and potentially violated the right to vote of many electors.
Pennsylvania is one of the seven swing states that will likely determine who wins the presidential election. With 19 Electoral College votes, it is the biggest prize among the battleground states, and both Democrats and Republicans see it as a must-win.
Erie County is widely seen as one of the state’s most contested counties.
Judge David Ridge, who serves on the Erie County Court of Common Pleas, ordered the board of elections to extend early voting through Nov. 4.
He allowed the board to hire a company that provides overnight delivery services to send replacement ballots after it was determined that about 1,200 county voters temporarily living outside the state had not received their ballots.
Ridge said in his ruling that it was determined that at least 365 duplicate ballots were sent to voters that contained a ballot with a barcode corresponding to another voter. As a result, he ordered that voters be given the opportunity to cancel previous ballots cast in their name by casting a new one.
Neither the Pennsylvania Democratic Party nor the Erie Board of Elections responded to requests for comment.
“I think that everybody worked together and did the best we could to enable people to vote despite the failings of the county’s contractor, which was just horrendous,” said Timothy McNair, an attorney for the state’s Democratic Party, according to WJET-TV.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are running neck and neck in Pennsylvania ahead of the election on Tuesday.
More than 1.6 million voters have already cast their ballots in Pennsylvania, according to a report by the state.
Over 25,000 voters have cast ballots in Erie County, which has 177,000 registered voters.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Leslie Adler)
