Court Decision Pushed To Tuesday In Brewster-Ziccarelli Senate Fight
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
HARRISBURG (KDKA) -- A federal judge expected to rule on a lawsuit over the 45th District Senate seat Monday will now release his opinion by noon Tuesday.
Senate Republican leaders refused to swear-in the certified winner, Democrat Jim Brewster, last week.
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Brewster defeated Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli by 69 votes.
Ziccarelli has asked a federal judge to throw out 311 mail-in ballots because voters forgot to date the outer envelope when they mailed the ballot back in. Since the ballots were received on time, the state Supreme Court ruled they could be counted even though state law says ballots must be dated by the voters.
If they're not counted, Ziccarelli wins by 24 votes.
In the meantime, Senator Jake Corman, who is the top Republican in the state Senate, says Republicans would not necessarily abide by the judge's decision, especially if it was made on procedural grounds.
