This database consolidates and tracks litigation concerning the effect of the pandemic on election law. The purpose of this tool is to provide an interactive list of relevant cases that can be searched by issue, court, status, and jurisdiction.
Case Details
Ziccarelli v. Allegheny County Board of Elections I
Closed
Ziccarelli v. Allegheny County Board of Elections, No. GD-20-11654 |
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| Case Summary | Plaintiff, a candidate for Pennsylvania state senate, appeals the decision of the Allegheny County Board of Elections to accept 2,349 mail-in ballots containing an undated voter verification. | |
| Filed | 11/12/2020 | |
| State | Pennsylvania | |
| Type of Court | State | |
| Status | Closed () | |
| Last Updated | 11/18/2020 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Vote-by-Mail (Signature Verification Standards) | |
| Complaint(s) | 11/12/2020: Complaint filed. | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 11/18/2020: Order/Ruling, The court held that the ballots at issue are sufficient even without a voter supplied date. The ballots were processed in the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (“SURE”) system and timestamped when they were timely delivered to the Board on or before November 3, 2020. They were signed and otherwise properly completed by a qualified elector. | |
Ziccarelli v. Allegheny County Board of Elections, No. 1162 CD 2020 (Penn. Commonw. Ct.) |
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| Case Summary | Appeal of decision to count 2,349 ballots. | |
| Filed | 11/19/2020 | |
| State | Pennsylvania | |
| Type of Court | State | |
| Status | Closed () | |
| Last Updated | 11/20/2020 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Authority To Act (State Separation of Powers) | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 11/19/2020: Order/Ruling, The court of appeals held that the Election Code requires that voters date the declaration. The lower court is reversed, and the 2,349 ballots will not be counted. | |
Ziccarelli v. Allegheny County Board of Elections, No. 29 WAP 2020 |
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| Case Summary | The Pennsylvania Supreme Court consolidated this case with five cases appealed by the Trump campaign, and issued a single opinion on them. The court considered whether the Election Code requires a county board of elections to disqualify mail-in or absentee ballots submitted by qualified electors who signed the declaration on their ballot’s outer envelope but did not handwrite their name, their address, and/or a date, where no fraud or irregularity has been alleged. | |
| Filed | 11/20/2020 | |
| State | Pennsylvania | |
| Type of Court | State | |
| Status | Closed () | |
| Last Updated | 12/02/2020 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Authority To Act (State Separation of Powers) | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 11/23/2020: Order/Ruling, The Supreme Court held that the Election Code does not require boards of elections to disqualify mail-in or absentee ballots submitted by qualified electors who signed the declaration on their ballot’s outer envelope but did not handwrite their name, their address, and/or date, where no fraud or irregularity has been alleged. The court affirmed the lower courts' decisions to count the ballots, on the basis that the Code's directives in question are not mandatory and Pennsylvania jurisprudence has long held that courts must construe the law to save, not void, ballots. | |
