Absentee count barred in Philadelphia

A federal judge has prohibited election officials in Philadelphia from opening and counting at least 12,000 absentee ballots received since Friday.

U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. issued the order in response to a lawsuit filed by Philadelphia’s Republican Committee.

The GOP claims city officials never provided its representatives with a list of approved absentee voters for each election district, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The list was intended to give opposing party officials time to legally challenge the qualifications of absentee voters before the election.

According to the lawsuit, the applications for absentee ballots have been filed “overwhelmingly by Democrats,” and a court order was needed to prevent absentee ballots from being opened and counted tonight, making it impossible to later file challenges.

The judge set a hearing for 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in federal court. He said he needed to hear testimony to decide whether to extend the order and the only way not to irreparably harm either side would be to temporarily bar the counting of absentee ballots.