Centre Co. officials address cost of mail-in ballot lawsuit
CENTRE COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — It is a big election year and already there are fears of more voting related lawsuits and legal challenges, like the one that's resulted from Centre County's primary election last month.
For taxpayers, that also means more legal bills.
Is the primary election, mail-in ballot lawsuit filed in Centre County a preview, in this presidential election year, of what’s to come?
“I believe we were sued 17 different times in 2020.”
And that is just in Centre County. Nationwide, in many of those suits, the initial rulings were then challenged with a court appeal, with various county, state and federal courts ruling in various ways on election and voting issues.
It all adds up to substantial legal bills.
“We do have money reserved for these types of lawsuits, but yes, it is essentially on the county taxpayer. However, if we are sued, I think, at one point, we had 14 different counties sued under the same lawsuit, so in those cases, the costs were split up 14 different ways.”
Right-to-know requests also add to the legal bills. State government agencies in Pennsylvania, during and after the 2020 election cycle, were named in more than 20 lawsuits, with their legal costs totaling close to $3.3 million.
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