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No Relief from a State Supreme Court’s Ruling on Counting Absentee Ballots Missing Information on Their Outer Envelopes

Robert Timothy Reagan
October 24, 2023

Ziccarelli v. Allegheny County Board of Elections (J. Nicholas Ranjan, W.D. Pa. 2:20-cv-1831)
A candidate in a close election complained that a state supreme court’s allowing a county to count absentee ballots without handwritten names and addresses on the ballots’ outer envelopes when other counties might not do that violated equal protection. The district judge ruled that the action was barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, which states that among federal courts only the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over state-court rulings.
Subject: Absentee and early voting. Topics: Absentee ballots; equal protection; matters for state courts; intervention.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.

Downloadable file:
PDF icon Case Study 2 pages

Tags:
Equal Protection | Election Litigation | Absentee Ballots | Early Voting | Equal Protection | Intervention | Matters for State Courts | Emergency Proceedings | U.S. District Courts | W.D. Pa.