Editorial: Pennsylvania elections need uniformity

Westmoreland County voters, you could have been warned.

On Thursday, the county election board set its guidelines in stone for the Could 16 main. It was spelled out unequivocally: Screw one thing up in your mail-in poll, and it’ll not be counted.

Particularly, ballots have to be dated and dated accurately.

That may not appear groundbreaking. It may appear downright apparent. However not in Pennsylvania.

Since 2020, the state has been torn over one query — to depend or to not depend. It has gone to election boards to determine. It has been taken to courtroom, to appeals courtroom, even to the state Supreme Court docket.

The rulings have gone forwards and backwards. Sure. No. Depend it. Don’t depend it. Segregate the ballots. Let the voters treatment the issue. No, don’t.

The final and newest resolution from the highest courtroom is consistent with Westmoreland’s resolution. Ballots with incorrect or lacking dates will be invalidated.

It’s good that Westmoreland is establishing this publicly earlier than most individuals have had a possibility to fill out and submit their poll. It’s equally vital that the road of the choice is being drawn earlier than a courtroom battle over a detailed race kicks off — which isn’t say that couldn’t come later.

“I believe with election legal guidelines continually altering, we have to have one thing in place for our voters,” mentioned Westmoreland Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher. “We’d like some uniformity as a result of elections legal guidelines are altering.”

Uniformity is missing within the state’s elections, the place every county board has its personal interpretation. Allegheny County, for instance, permits ballots to be cured.

That received’t be an issue this yr, when the races are native and county centered. However as this continues, it appears prone to arrange issues down the street when candidates cross county strains.

That’s what occurred in 2020 with the forty fifth Senate District. That got here all the way down to a dispute between incumbent Jim Brewster, who in the end received, and now-Westmoreland County District Legal professional Nicole Ziccarelli. A poll with an issue that counted in Allegheny wouldn’t have been counted in Westmoreland.

Court docket selections on what counts and what doesn’t might help make clear what ought to occur, however they don’t matter a lot if everybody isn’t on the identical web page.