Winter said election law allows for recounts at individual precincts. (610) 678-5393 Fax. The judges of the Berks County Court of Common Pleas include: A. Joseph Antanavage. READING, PA 19608 Tel. To me is mind boggling and completely unacceptable.. from the Dickinson School of Law.. Career The names of the voters who cast their ballots on election day at the machines, by mail and by provisional ballots. A manual recount of all paper ballots generated by the voting machines, as well as all mailed, absentee and provisional ballots. Jason Ulrich, an attorney for the Berks County Democratic Committee who is joining the county to oppose the petitions in court, said Tuesday that the organization was also very pleased with the ruling. The petitions were filed under a little-known provision of state election law that allows a precincts results to be recounted if three voters from the precinct file a petition in county court saying they believe fraud or error occurred there and those voters pay a combined $50. In particular, Wallace wrote, the committee did not file petitions for each precinct in the county where votes were cast for the two races in question and they did not provide evidence that a particular act of fraud or error occurred. The county appreciates the time and attention Judge Lillis gave to this matter, it reads. } } I just think that is a miscarriage of voter intent.. To examine the outer envelopes of all mail ballots cast by Berks voters to compare the signatures with the voter signatures on record in the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors System. display: inline-block; After officers went inside and secured a dog in the apartment, they found Moyers body with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. color: white; The committee has made four requests in the petitions: A manual recount of all paper ballots generated by the voting machines, as well as all mailed, absentee and provisional ballots. width: 57%; .courts-container hr {background-color:#f0a236;padding-bottom:2px;}, Third Circuit Court of Appeals U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Pennsylvania, Western District of Pennsylvania U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Pennsylvania, Western District of Pennsylvania, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. .clearfix { font-weight: bold; Judge Barrett's Court; Judge Lillis's Court; As Petitioners did not satisfy either requirement, the Court affirms Common Pleas order, Wallace wrote in her 26-page ruling. } } The county now plans to certify the results at an elections board meeting Thursday. display: inline-block; The petitions were filed under a little-known provision of state election law that allows a precincts results to be recounted if three voters from the precinct pay $50 and file a petition in county court saying they believe fraud or error occurred there. Yatron earned a bachelor's degree in political science and history from . color: black; The petitions were filed last week by the committee on behalf of 94 individual voters. Francis J. Catania is a partner in the Media, PA, law firm of Catania & Parker, LLP, and has been practicing law for over 30. ALERT! width: 57%; .widget-row.Republican { The. if(document.getElementsByClassName("reference").length==0) if(document.getElementById('Footnotes')!==null) document.getElementById('Footnotes').parentNode.style.display = 'none'; .courts-container { background-color:#fcfcfc; width:100%; border:1px solid black;padding:5px;text-align:center;clear:both; } There was a problem saving your notification. Pennsylvania's judicial elections included a primary on May 19, 2015, and a general election on November 3, 2015. A Berks County judge has dismissed petitions filed by the Berks County Republican Committee seeking a recount of ballots cast during the general election at 30 precincts across the. in English from Immaculata College and her J.D. Attorney Eric Winter, who argued on behalf of the Berks County Republican Committee, disagreed with Kauffmans assessment, saying the language in the law that allows for recount petitions doesnt include that language. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the recount effort at Berks was part of a nationwide attempt by supporters of failed gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano to flood Pennsylvania courts with petitions aimed at forcing hand recounts. 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The committee did not send a representative to this testing or otherwise attempt to participate in the testing, the results of which confirmed the machines were functioning correctly. Our employment practices are not influenced or affected by race, color . A Berks County judge has dismissed petitions filed by the Berks County Republican Committee seeking a recount of ballots cast during the general election at 30 precincts across the county. } After the killing, he cleaned up the bedroom d by picking up the shell casings ejected from the gun. Any facts that were going to be presented to Judge Lillis needed to be presented by way of a verified petition. The petitions were filed under a little-known provision of the state elections law that allows a districts results to be recounted if three voters from the district pay $50 and petition the district court believing there was fraud or error appeared. padding-left: 10px; Jnp`! He said he brings to the table 20 years of impactful experience in the legal . He was elected on November 3, 2015.[1]. The petitions do not do that. Lillis received his undergraduate degree from the United States Air Force Academy and his J.D. During an hour-long hearing in front of Berks County Judge James Lillis, attorneys representing the county and Berks County Republican Committee laid out their reasons for why. When asked by the judge if it was possible human error was to blame for the issues, Winter acknowledged that could be the case. color: white;

} The Berks County Court of Common Pleas has made the following changes to Family Court case assignments, effective January 3, 2023: . } ;/%&6J7;ACFGF*4MRLDR?EFC C CC&-CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC from the University of Pittsburgh Law School in 1982. Thats a fatal defect of these petitions, he said. font-size: .9em; An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Pennsylvania Right to Know Law 65 Pennsylvania Statute 67.101 et seq. .infobox { She also ran for the Berks County Court of Common Pleas in 2013.. Education. Over the course of his judicial career, Yatron reorganized the adult and juvenile probation departments into the Probation and Parole Department. Oz continues to maintain a slight lead, which will require an automatic recount of votes in the state. Leinbach also said he was extremely disappointed with the McCormick campaign for filing the challenge. hearing held, Judge Lillis again denied Appellant's request. .widget-row.Independent, .widget-row.Nonpartisan, .widget-row.Constitution { .widget-row.value-only.black { David L. Plum. A hearing about the petitions will be held before Berks County Judge James Lillis . This judge is outside of that coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates. background-color: #f9d334; They said Talarico was driving Moyers car. Ballotpedia features 395,441 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Apply today! color: white; And, he said, this is not an issue the committee has ever heard about before. Lillis did not issue a ruling Thursday and gave both parties until 4 p.m. Friday to submit any supporting documentation for their cases. The McCormick campaigns actions are clearly being made based on political expediency versus a real concern for the law, Leinbach said. And, in a county that uses an electronic voting system, the recount can be done using electronic devices of a different type used for the specific election. Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach called the challenge troubling. James M. Lillis Berks County Court of Common Pleas. The courts do have general supervisory powers over the polls to ensure compliance and to carry out the intent of the election code regarding the polls being open.. United States. )0mpuJ .widget-key { } The committee subsequently appealed his decision to Commonwealth Court. An effort to force recounts in 30 Berks County precincts had its day in court Thursday. width: 150px; font-weight: bold; The filing deadline for candidates was March 11, 2015.Dimitriou Geishauser, Lillis and Barrett were unopposed in the general election. vertical-align: top; Judge James M. Bucci retired last December, and Judge Mary Ann Ullman has announced that she will . padding-left: 10px; &'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ? The alert entitled Agencies Ordered to Pay Legal Fees can be found here, The Office of Open Records hosts a webpage where it has collected Court decisions on Enforcing a Final Determinations, Francis J. Catania is a partner in the Media, PA, law firm of Catania & Parker, LLP, and has been practicing law for over 30 years. Mike Urban joined the Reading Eagle as a metro reporter in 2002, and since then has covered a wide range of beats and topics across Berks County, including working as an investigative reporter. He was elected to the bench on November 7, 2017, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. |al @9# X ( H%D =5"|2+" HI "@&@jBbzVe$ )S }@OJ u font-weight: bold; The commissioners discussed the matter and voted to uphold the existing state law in counting or not counting the unsigned ballots. Magisterial District Judge 39-3-03: Fannett Township, Hamilton Township, Letterkenny Township, Lurgan Township. She covers county government as well as policy issues at the state and federal level with a local focus. The Hon. She also cross-filed as a Republican, but lost that primary with 9.8 percent of the vote. 0000000436 00000 n He currently covers court news, veterans' stories and all types of general news. He was elected to the bench on November 3, 2015. It said the petitioners failed to "plead and verify" specific acts of . County election officials are fighting the petitions, saying they are without merit and should be dismissed. .widget-row.Libertarian { Pileggi with questions, though we cannot guarantee a reply to all requests. The petitions were filed under a little-known provision of state election law that allows a precincts results to be recounted if three voters from the precinct pay $50 and file a petition in county court saying they believe fraud or error occurred there. As he was taken into custody the next morning he made spontaneous statements regarding Moyer being killed. The door was locked and no one answered. } } However, he does not know whether his client is interested in an appeal. Someone has to program each machine, which means there could have been an error made then.. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Lastly, the county says the election department already performed a statistical recount of the votes cast in the 2022 general election and found that the results were accurate. Leinbach noted that the reason the commissioners did not object to the petition to Lillis was because they wanted to be fair to any affected voters who were unable to cast ballots in the morning of May 17. } Mercer reminded the board that under state law, the county may not count the provisional ballots for two days after the elections board ruling to give the campaign adequate time to file an appeal, should it wish to do so. Berks County election officials believe petitions that have been filed demanding recounts in 30 precincts are without merit and should be dismissed, paperwork filed Wednesday shows. Winter said the law gives the court broad powers to order a recount that is conducted by hand so machine-related errors can be detected and the results compared to those that were tabulated using electronic devices. color: white; He added that voter signatures are confidential and disclosing those signatures to the public would present significant election integrity concerns. .widget-img { If you would like to help our coverage scope grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia. An order from Judge James Lillis was released to the parties involved on Tuesday. Chief among them is that no fraud or error was committed in the computation of the votes cast or in the marking of the ballots. Dec. 6 A Berks County judge has dismissed petitions by the Berks County Republican Committee seeking a recount of ballots cast during general elections in 30 counties in the county. Before arriving at the Reading Eagle, Karen covered policy issues in Harrisburg and Washington for LNP. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. in English from Immaculata College and her J.D. We believe something is going on here with the machines, he said. That may have prevented some Berks County voters from casting votes during the first hour or two of the primary election. The petitions were filed last month by the committee on behalf of 94 individual voters. Two unverified petitions were presented to Judge Lillis, and thats important because under the rules, a petition must be verified if they contain facts that are not of record. J. Benjamin Nevius is a judge for the Berks County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania. The Berks County Board of Elections submitted a response to petitions that were filed last Monday in county court. So, unless the petitioners can provide evidence of a particular problem, they must file their petitions in all 202 Berks precincts. The committee wants the county to make all voting equipment, including the voting machines, available for inspection and testing. 2. The Honorable James M. Lillis of that court granted summary judgment to Brobst Sr. and a judgment for possession which granted him sole ownership and the sole right to possession of the Real Property by Order signed on June 22, 2016. It says the petitioners failed to plead and verify specific acts of fraud or error, while not asking for a recount of all votes cast for the office in question across the county. vertical-align: top; Jeff Bukowski, an attorney representing the Oz campaign, said the provisional ballots were cast by voters through no fault of their own. color: white; Judge Lillis's Court; ARD DUI Rules; CRN Information; Court Documents; Probation Contact Information; Internships; DUS - DUI Related; margin-bottom:0px; Cody Kauffman, First Assistant County Solicitor, argued that the petitions should be dismissed because they contain no evidence of a specific act of fraud or error. ] YGXPX _`x_0Z`D@ */ D{ye_{ +Lf'\|^!Bvn *5aMV2:V?7 D?sC+JP Attorney Eric Winter, arguing on behalf of the Berks County Republican Committee, said shortly after the order became available late Tuesday morning that he has yet to see it and review it with his client. 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