The Washington County Board of Elections is holding a special meeting Friday morning to hire an attorney to handle the lawsuit filed Monday by seven county residents accusing officials of disenfranchising their right to vote by refusing to allow ballot curing. The meeting is open to the public and will be held at 10 a.m.
in the ground floor conference room in the Crossroads Center building in Washington. The agenda lists an opportunity for the public to speak before the board is expected to go into a closed-door executive session to presumably talk about the lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and other advocacy groups. The agenda also lists the appointment of “legal representation/special counsel” to navigate the lawsuit, although it’s not known what attorney will handle the case.
Commission Chairman Nick Sherman, who also leads the elections board, defended the county’s position to not allow ballot curing, which is the procedure for people to fix technical mistakes on their mail-in ballot envelopes so their votes will be counted. “We stand by our decision regarding mail-in ballots and will not alter our position, despite the ACLU and other organizations suing the Washington County Elections Board,” Sherman said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “I urge these individuals and groups to focus their efforts on advocating for a change in the law through the state legislature.
” There is no provision in the elections code that prohibits or requires b.
