Allegheny County’s plan to operate five staffed ballot drop-off locations in the lead-up to the April primary election violates Pennsylvania election law and the Commonwealth’s Sunshine Act, a new lawsuit alleges.
Sam DeMarco, a member of Allegheny County Council and the Board of Elections, filed suit against the county and County Executive Sara Innamorato Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. Four county voters are also plaintiffs in the case.
They argue that Innamorato did not obtain approval from the Board of Elections or receive public input before going forward with the drop-off plan, as required by law.
The filing Thursday asks a judge to order an injunction and stop the county from opening the additional drop-off locations until the county executive complies with the laws.
Innamorato announced the drop-off locations in February, citing the need to “[expand] access to voting, while maintaining the safety and security of our elections.”
DeMarco and fellow council and Board of Elections member Bethany Hallam criticized the administration for circumventing the three-member board, of which the county executive is the chair. DeMarco is also the chairman of the Republican committee of Allegheny County and the only Republican on the board.
“I'm doing this because she didn't follow the process. She doesn't have the authority to make these unilateral decisions,” he said.
The suit is being supported by the Republican-backed national group Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections. RITE will pay the plaintiff’s attorney fees in the case. DeMarco said he did not have an estimate of what the suit might cost. According to Reuters, RITE has supported a law that restricts the use of drop boxes.
“County Executive Innamorato cannot ignore her legal obligations to consult with other members of the county board of elections and the public, no matter how eager she may be to impose her will on the citizens of Allegheny County,” RITE president Derek Lyons said in a statement.
“The county executive may not care what her fellow citizens have to say about ballot drop boxes, but she is required by law to at least hear them out,” he said. “And while she may wish she could dispense with her fellow board members, on this issue, she is but one vote among three. Under the law, whether Allegheny County will once again operate satellite election offices is to be deliberated and resolved, not dictated and decreed.”
Innamorato spokesperson Abigail Gardner declined to comment on the suit, but she noted that the Board of Elections is scheduled to meet next week and vote on the ballot-return sites. That item was added to the agenda by election staff Wednesday, before DeMarco filed the suit.
In February, Gardner said that because the satellite locations will not offer complete voting services, such as early voting, the administration believed it wasn't necessary to involve the board. She also said the Pennsylvania Department of State approved the plan.
An email from Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathan Marks, which the Innamorato administration provided to WESA, shows that Marks did respond to a letter from David Voye, the manager of the county’s Division of Elections, detailing plans for the drop box locations.
“Allegheny County followed the Department of State’s guidance with respect to best practices for counties that choose to utilize drop boxes and submitted its initial plan to the Department,” a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State said in an email to WESA. “The decision with respect to whether to use ballot drop boxes is a county decision, and no approval is required from the Department of State.”
The department did not respond to questions about whether the county executive has the ability to independently implement ballot drop-off locations.
The upcoming Board of Elections vote could make the lawsuit moot, said board member Hallam. Both she and Innamorato have spoken in support of expanding the use of satellite ballot drop-off locations across the county.
Still, Hallam said, the Board of Elections had to approve the past implementation of ballot drop-off locations.
During the 2020 election, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted typical voting procedures, the Board of Elections voted unanimously to approve five ballot drop-off locations across the county. (Then-County Executive Rich Fitzgerald later scrapped that plan for future elections, saying it wasn’t cost-effective and that mail-in ballots provided sufficient convenience without the added cost to the county.)
“I think in accordance with Department of State standards, in accordance with Board of Elections laws, we should absolutely be voting on anything that has to do with the elections process, especially including the return of ballots,” Hallam said.
She noted that the drop-off locations have yet to be implemented. “I do believe as long as this vote happens first, that we will be 100% compliant with the law.”
DeMarco called the upcoming vote an “indirect admission” that Innamorato alone does not have the authority to install drop-off locations.
“As far as I'm concerned, any changes to the way we run our elections need to be brought before the Board of Elections, need to be discussed and debated in the light of day, need to have the public have the ability to comment,” he said. “It needs to be voted on before instituted.”
