Philadelphia’s top elections official is warning of electoral chaos in the presidential battleground state if lawmakers there do not remove a provision in Pennsylvania law that, under a days-old court decision, requires counties to throw out mail-in ballots returned without secrecy envelopes. Lisa Deeley, chairwoman of the three-member board overseeing Philadelphia’s elections, wrote Monday to the state Legislature’s presiding Republicans amid a partisan stalemate over fixing glitches in Pennsylvania’s fledging mail-in voting law. In the letter, Deeley urged them to back legislation to remove a provision she calls unnecessary and a threat to invalidate more ballots than the margin that decided the state’s 2016 presidential election.
