HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A form Pennsylvania voters must complete on the outside of mail-in ballot return envelopes has been redesigned, but that did not prevent some voters from failing to complete it accurately for this week’s primary, and some votes will not count as a result, election officials said.

The primary was the first use of the revamped form on the back of return envelopes that was unveiled late last year amid litigation over whether ballots are valid when they arrive to be counted inside envelopes that do not contain accurate, handwritten dates.

The most recent ruling was a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel’s decision last month that upheld the date mandate. The groups and individuals who sued to challenge the requirement are currently asking the full 3rd Circuit to reconsider the matter.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said at an election night news conference that his agency will be following the county-by-county vote tabulation to see how many ballots get thrown out as a result. That will help determine whether the new design did more harm than good.

The new design provides blanks for the month and day and has voters complete the last two numbers of the year. The forms prompt voters with a preprinted “20” and requires them to complete the year by adding “24.”

“I think we’ve received a lot of positive feedback” about the redesign, Schmidt said, “and I’m confident it will result in fewer voters making unintentional, minor errors that are, however, defective in nature.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represents several voter groups in the federal litigation, has said more than 10,000 ballots in the state were disqualified in 2022 based on what opponents of the mandate consider to be a meaningless paperwork error. Older voters are disproportionately more likely to send in ballot envelopes with incorrect or missing dates. Democrats use mail-in voting far more than Republicans in Pennsylvania.

Votebeat Pennsylvania reported Monday that a top state election administrator told counties in an email last week they should count ballots “if the date written on the ballot can reasonably be interpreted to be ‘the day upon which (the voter) completed the declaration.'”

Lycoming County is not following that advice, and county Elections Director Forrest Lehman said his experience during the primary suggests the changes have not helped get more votes counted.

“I’m sure there may be some counties out there that are choosing to count these, but there are also a lot that aren’t,” Lehman said. “And there’s simply no denying that the design of these envelopes has created a new way to record a date that instantly became a huge percentage of all the incorrect dates.”

During the 2022 primary, Lycoming County set aside 49 mail ballots. This month, Lycoming set aside 48, among them 22 with incorrect dates. Half of those were invalidated because the voter did not write the last two digits of the year.

“Whatever they thought this would accomplish in terms of changing voter behavior, it didn’t change a thing,” he said, except that counties had to buy new envelopes.

Berks County set aside 91 mail-in primary ballots for having incorrect return envelope dates, 32 for lacking a date and 129 for not being signed or having someone — typically a spouse — sign another’s ballot. Berks saw nearly 52,000 total votes cast, including more than 16,000 by mail.

By the time the outer envelope email from the Department of State arrived last week, Berks County spokesperson Stephanie Nojiri said, officials there had already decided to count those that lack the “24” for the year because the new envelopes were all printed in 2024.

Allegheny County had already received nearly 1,400 incorrect ballots when officials there received the new advice from the state on Friday, said spokeswoman Abigail Gardner. The most common problem was a lack of the “24” year.

Allegheny election workers had been contacting voters by mailing back their ballots with letters that explained why, and about 800 were corrected. After receiving the Department of State guidance, the county began simply counting those without the “24″ on the date portion of the envelopes.

DETROIT (AP) — A state investigator testified Wednesday that he considers former President Donald Trump and his White House chief of staff to be uncharged co-conspirators in a scheme to claim that he had won Michigan in the 2020 election, despite Democrat Joe Biden’s clear victory.

Trump and Mark Meadows were among the names mentioned during the cross-examination of Howard Shock, whose work led to forgery charges against more than a dozen people in Michigan. A judge in the state capital is holding hearings to determine if there is enough evidence to order a trial.

A defense attorney, Duane Silverthorn, offered a series of names and asked Shock if they were “unindicted co-conspirators,” which means they weren’t charged but could have been part of an alleged plot to put Michigan’s electoral votes in Trump’s column.

Prosecutors from the attorney general’s office didn’t object. Shock responded “yes” to Trump, Meadows, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and some high-ranking state Republicans.

Silverthorn then moved on to other questions.

“I’m surprised the question was even answered,” said Detroit-area attorney Margaret Raben, former head of a statewide association of defense lawyers.

“It’s irrelevant — legally and factually irrelevant — that there are other people who could have been charged or should have been charged,” said Raben, who is not involved in the case.

Meadows’ lawyer, George Terwilliger, had a similar reaction when reached by The Associated Press. He declined further comment. An email seeking comment was sent to a Trump spokesperson. Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman emailed a response that didn’t address the specific issue.

In Georgia, Trump, Giuliani and others are charged with conspiracy related to the filing of a Republican elector certificate in that state following the 2020 election. Meadows is also charged in Georgia but not in relation to the elector scheme. They have pleaded not guilty.

An indictment by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charging Trump with plotting to overturn the election also accuses the former president in a fake elector scheme and identifies six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators, including Giuliani.

In Michigan, authorities said more than a dozen Republicans sent certificates to Congress falsely declaring they were electors and that Trump was the winner of the 2020 election in the state, despite results showing he had lost. Attorney General Dana Nessel said the scheme was hatched in the basement of the state Republican Party headquarters.

___

Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez

GUYMON, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma prosecutors charged a fifth member of an anti-government group on Wednesday with killing and kidnapping two Kansas women.

Paul Jeremiah Grice, 31, was charged in Texas County with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder.

Grice told an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent that he participated in the killing and burial of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, of Hugoton, Kansas, according to an arrest affidavit filed in the case.

Grice is being held without bond at the Texas County Detention Center in Guymon, a jail official said. Court and jail records don’t indicate if Grice has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Four others have been charged in connection with the deaths and are being held without bail: Tifany Adams, 54, and her boyfriend, Tad Cullum, 43, of Keyes, and Cole, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44, of Texhoma, Oklahoma.

Butler and Kelley disappeared March 30 while driving to pick up Butler’s two children for a birthday party. Adams, who is the children’s grandmother, was in a bitter custody dispute with Butler, who was only allowed supervised visits with the children on Saturdays. Kelley was authorized to supervise the visits, according to the affidavits.

A witness who spoke to Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents said all five suspects were part of “an anti-government group that had a religious affiliation,” according to the affidavit. Investigators learned the group called themselves “God’s Misfits” and held regular meetings at the home of the Twomblys and another couple.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has granted clemency to 16 people who were convicted of non-violent drug crimes, issuing pardons to 11 men and women and commuting the sentences of five other people in the latest use of his clemency power to address racial disparities in the justice system.

Biden said in a statement Wednesday that April is Second Chance Month and that many of the individuals getting clemency had received “disproportionately longer” sentences than they would have under current law.

The Democratic president is campaigning for reelection in November and is grappling with how to boost support from communities of color that heavily supported him over Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The two rivals are headed for a likely rematch in November.

“Like my other clemency actions, these pardons and commutations reflect my overarching commitment to addressing racial disparities and improving public safety,” Biden said.

Biden said those receiving pardons had shown a commitment to bettering their lives and doing good in their communities. Those who had their sentences commuted, or shortened, had shown they are worthy of forgiveness and the chance to build a future outside of prison, he said.

The president issued his most recent previous pardons in December 2023 to thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden met Wednesday with Abigail Edan, the 4-year-old American girl who was held hostage in Gaza for several weeks at the start of the war.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the White House meeting with Abigail and her family was “a reminder of the work still to do” to win the release of dozens of people who were taken captive by Hamas in an Oct. 7 attack on Israel and are still believed to be in captivity in Gaza.

Abigail, who has dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship, was taken hostage after her parents were killed in the attack and was released nearly seven weeks later. She was the first U.S. hostage freed by Hamas as part of a deal with Israel to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners early in the war. Abigail turned four during her time in captivity.

“It was also a reminder in getting to see her that there are still Americans and others being held hostage by Hamas,” said Sullivan, who attended Biden’s meeting with the girl and her family. “And we’re working day in, day out to ensure all of them also are able to get safely home to their loved ones. ”

Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Biden spoke to the girl soon after her release in November. Thursday’s meeting was one of mixed emotions for the president.

“Abigail and her two siblings had their parents killed on October 7th, so they’re still living with the tragedy and the trauma of that. Abigail, of course, is living with the trauma of being held captive for many weeks,” Sullivan said. “But this was a moment of joy as well, because she was able to be returned safely to her family. ”

Biden’s meeting with Abigail came as Hamas on Wednesday released a recorded video of an Israeli American still being held by the group.

The video was the first sign of life of Hersh Goldberg-Polin since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. It was not clear when the video was taken.

Goldberg-Polin, 23, was at the Tribe of Nova music festival when Hamas launched its attack from nearby Gaza. In the video, Goldberg-Polin is missing part of his left arm.

Witnesses said he lost it when attackers tossed grenades into a shelter where people had taken refuge. He tied a tourniquet around it before being bundled into the truck.

Sullivan said U.S. law enforcement officials are assessing the video but declined further comment.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ Democratic governor on Wednesday vetoed a broad package of tax cuts for the second time in three months, describing it as “too expensive” despite the bipartisan support it enjoyed in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Gov. Laura Kelly and her staff had signalled that she had misgivings about a package of income, sales and property tax cuts worth $1.5 billion over the next three years. Her chief of staff said before it cleared the Legislature this month that it was larger than Kelly thought the state could afford in the long term. The governor also told fellow Democrats that she believes Kansas’ current three personal income tax rates ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share. The plan would have moved to two rates.

The governor immediately proposed new tax cuts worth roughly $1.3 billion over the next three years, but the Kansas House’s top Republican immediately said the governor “isn’t serious” about tax relief. The Legislature was set to reconvene Thursday following a spring break and wrap up its work for the year in just six days.

“While I appreciate the bipartisan effort that went into this tax cut package and support many of the provisions included, I cannot sign into law a bill that jeopardizes our state’s future fiscal stability,” Kelly wrote in her veto message. “This bill is too expensive.”

Top Republican legislators have wanted to move Kansas to a single personal income tax rate, which at least five other GOP-led states have done since July 2021, according to the conservative Tax Foundation. But their dispute with Kelly over that idea has meant that Kansas hasn’t enacted big tax cuts, even as surplus funds have filled its coffers.

In January, Kelly vetoed a plan to cut taxes by $1.6 billion over three years that Democrats largely opposed. It would have moved Kansas to a single-rate personal income tax, and Kelly argued it would have benefited the “super wealthy,” which Republicans disputed.

“Kansans need and deserve tax relief, and Governor Kelly isn’t serious when she says she wants to provide it,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said in a statement.

Democrats were split over the bill Kelly vetoed. In the Senate, they largely opposed it for the same reasons Kelly did, while in the House, no members voted against it.

Overriding a veto requires two-thirds majorities in both chambers. The House’s top Democrat, state Rep. Vic Miller, of Topeka, said he likes Kelly’s new plan but doubts Republicans will embrace it, making the bill Kelly vetoed possibly the best that Democrats can expect.

“I’m not sure I want to risk what she’s willing to risk,” he said of the governor.

Kelly isn’t the only governor at odds with lawmakers over taxes. In neighboring Nebraska, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen said he’ll call a special legislative session over rising property taxes. The conservative Legislature there adjourned last week without passing Pillen’s plan to fund property tax relief by raising the state’s sales tax and applying it to more goods and services, including candy, soda and digital advertising.

The bill Kelly vetoed also would eliminate income taxes on Social Security benefits, which kick in when a retiree earns $75,000 a year. It would reduce the state’s property taxes for public schools and eliminate an already-set-to-expire 2% sales tax on groceries six months early, on July 1.

In moving Kansas from three personal income tax rates to two, it would drop the highest top rate from 5.7% to 5.55%.

Kelly’s new plan includes the same sales tax and Social Security provisions, as well as a version of the property tax cut. Her plan would keep all three personal income tax rates and lower them. Her highest rate would be 5.65%.

Last week, a new fiscal forecast provided a stable picture for state government through the end of June 2025. A separate projection from legislative researchers said that even with extra spending approved by lawmakers this year and the tax cuts Kelly vetoed, the state would end June 2025 with more than $3.7 billion in surplus. Kelly argues that problems would arrive in future years, though Republicans strongly disagree.

Kelly won the first of her two terms in 2018 by running against the fiscal policies of a Republican predecessor, Gov. Sam Brownback. Big budget shortfalls followed large income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 and continued until most of the cuts were repealed in 2017 over Brownback’s veto.

But Republicans argue that warnings from Kelly hearkening back to Brownback’s policies have lost credibility as surplus revenues have piled up.

“It’s far past time for the governor to put her worn-out Brownback rhetoric on the back burner and finally make our Kansas families the top priority,” House Taxation Committee Chair Adam Smith, a western Kansas Republican, wrote in a column Tuesday in the Kansas City Star.

___

Associated Press writer Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, also contributed to this story.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Connecticut business owner who has served as an elected alderman in his hometown was sentenced Wednesday to 10 days behind bars for joining a mob’s assault on the U.S. Capitol over three years ago, court records show.

Chief Judge James Boasberg also ordered Gene DiGiovanni Jr. to perform 50 hours of community service for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, according to a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C.

DiGiovanni, of Derby, Connecticut, attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House before marching to the Capitol and entering the building through the Upper West Terrace door. He remained inside the Capitol for roughly 22 minutes.

“After exiting the building, DiGiovanni did not leave the grounds but remained on the East Front steps where he celebrated, raising his arm in the air,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

DiGiovanni pleaded guilty in January to entering or remaining within a restricted building or grounds, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison.

Prosecutors had recommended sentencing DiGiovanni to 30 days of imprisonment. Defense attorney Martin Minnella asked for no jail time.

“As Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.’ This is what Mr. DiGiovanni has endured since the outset of this case,” Minnella wrote.

DiGiovanni “was merely a follower and did not intent to participate in any so-called insurrection,” Minnella said in a statement after Wednesday’s sentencing.

“On behalf of Mr. DiGiovanni and his family, we are all grateful that this dark chapter in his life is now over,” the lawyer added.

DiGiovanni is a contractor who owns a construction business. He has served as an alderman in Derby and ran for mayor of the city after the Capitol riot.

More than 1,350 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

DENVER (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday urged jurors to convict a former Colorado sheriff’s deputy of murder and other charges for shooting and killing a 22-year-old man in distress after they say the deputy needlessly escalated a standoff with him.

The 2022 death of Christian Glass in a small mountain community drew national attention and prompted calls for police reforms focused on crisis intervention. A second officer indicted in Glass’ death previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Another six officers who were on scene have also been charged with failing to intervene.

Glass called 911 for help after his SUV became stuck on a dirt road in the mountain town of Silver Plume. He told a dispatcher he was being followed and made other statements suggesting he was paranoid, hallucinating or delusional, and experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the indictments.

When former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Buen and other officers arrived, Glass refused to get out of his vehicle. Officers’ body camera footage showed Glass making heart shapes with his hands to the officers and praying: “Dear Lord, please, don’t let them break the window.”

In closing arguments in Buen’s trial, prosecutors said Buen decided from the start that Glass needed to get out of the vehicle and shouted commands at him 46 times over about 10 minutes. The prosecution contends Buen did not have any legal justification to force Glass out, not even if it was a suspected case of driving under the influence.

After being hit with bean bag rounds and Tasers failed to make Glass exit, Glass took a knife he had offered to surrender at the beginning of the encounter and flung it out a rear window broken by a bean bag toward another officer, Randy Williams, according to Buen’s indictment. At that point, Buen fired five times at Glass.

Glass just reacted after being treated “like an animal in a cage being poked and prodded,” and the knife never touched Williams, District Attorney Heidi McCollum said in court in Idaho Springs.

The defense argued Buen was trying to protect Williams when he fired, that the shooting was legally justified and that he should be acquitted. Buen’s lawyer, Carrie Slinkard, faulted prosecutors for not looking into whether Glass had behavioral or psychological issues that could explain his behavior, whether drugs had played a role, or whether both factors could have contributed.

Buen is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment.

Glass’ mother, Sally Glass, has said her son suffered from depression, had recently been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and was “having a mental health episode” during his interaction with the police.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Potts, who described Glass as a “terrified boy”, said it did not matter what prompted the crisis.

“He was in a crisis of some kind. Is this how we expect people in crisis to be treated? he said shortly before jurors began deliberating.

Last year, Glass’ parents won a $19 million settlement that included such policy changes as crisis intervention training for Colorado law enforcement officers responding to people in distress.

By Aurora Ellis

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gathered around a banner emblazoned with the words “stop arming Israel,” thousands of protesters joined with Jewish-led peace groups in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday evening to attend a Passover protest that recalls the “Freedom Seder” held in the tumultuous year of 1969.

Organizers said they drew inspiration for Tuesday’s demonstration from ties forged between Jewish organizers and African-American civil rights activists to create a multiracial interfaith “Freedom Seder” on the first anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s 1968 assassination as the Vietnam War raged. The Seder is a Passover celebration and ceremony that commemorates the story of Exodus – Moses leading enslaved Jews out of Egypt.

The event was organized by the left-leaning Jewish Voices for Peace and the If Not Now movement, who said they saw the Seder protests as part of Jewish tradition that they traced back to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who held the first Freedom Seder.

“Passover is our story of liberation, and we are commanded to tell it every year,” said Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director Stefanie Fox, who flew in from Seattle to make the event at Grand Army Plaza. “We take our prayer and our ritual and our communal heart to the streets.”

The holiday, Fox said, urges us to think about “what are the issues of freedom in our day, and there is none more salient than what is happening to Palestinians right now.”

Protesters at the event were urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish member of Congress, not to back military aid to Israel.

The event saw young activists encouraged by elders, some of whom sat on lawn chairs and with canes. It also featured Syrian and Moroccan Jewish speakers who reflected on memories of sharing traditions with their Muslim neighbors during seders past.

Prominent author Naomi Klein addressed the crowd, speaking in support of the latest wave of U.S. university protests calling for an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza that has killed over 30,000, saying it amounts to genocide, a charge Israel denies.

Hundreds of protesters were reported arrested while blocking the streets of Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza.

Critics of the protests say demonstrators often ignore reports of antisemitism that have skyrocketed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took over 200 hostage, sparking Israel’s massive retaliation.

Rosalind Petchesky, 81, a distinguished professor emeritus of political science at CUNY and MacArthur Genius who was arrested last year during a protest at the White House, said she does not deny that there were Jewish students who have faced antisemitic remarks. But she added that it was important for Jewish students and individuals who speak up for Palestinian safety to be heard.

“Progressive Jewish students are very aware and they have learned about the indivisibility of justice,” said Petchesky. “We know that all these struggles are linked.”

(Reporting by Aurora Ellis; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

By Jonathan Stempel and Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court revived a lawsuit accusing Whole Foods of illegally firing a worker who refused to remove her “Black Lives Matter” facemask and complained about racism at the upscale grocery chain.

In a 3-0 decision released on Wednesday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the firing of Savannah Kinzer, an outspoken critic who worked in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, store, “arguably deviated” from Whole Foods’ disciplinary process.

The Boston-based panel also upheld the dismissal of similar claims by two other workers, Haley Evans and Christopher Michno, finding no proof that Whole Foods’ discipline of them was unusual. Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.com.

Neither Whole Foods nor its lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment. A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to similar requests.

The lawsuit is one of many arising from protests that followed the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

It began as a proposed class action over a Whole Foods dress code that barred workers from wearing Black Lives Matter attire.

Whole Foods has long maintained that its dress code, which also covered visible slogans, logos and ads, was meant to foster a welcoming, safe and inclusive shopping environment. The appeals court dismissed the class action claims in 2022.

Kinzer said she was fired in retaliation for “protected conduct” including protesting outside her store, rejecting demands to stop wearing a mask, talking to the press, and filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Whole Foods said Kinzer’s poor attendance, including “attendance points” for wearing a mask, justified her firing.

Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez, however, said it was unclear whether Whole Foods imposed a final, decisive attendance point against Kinzer through a normal application of its time and attendance policy, or because of her protected conduct.

“It is the province of a jury to decide such a dispute,” he wrote.

The appeals court returned Kinzer’s case to U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston, who dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ claims in January 2023.

Whole Foods employed Evans in Marlton, New Jersey, and Michno in Berkeley, California.

The case is Kinzer et al v Whole Foods Market Inc, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 22-1064, 23-1100.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)