Officials in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were forced to replace over 18,000 mail-in ballots after a printing error incorrectly restricted the number of candidates voters were allowed to select.Postal officials helped the southern Pennsylvania county intercept about 15,000 of the affected ballots.The Lancaster County elections board plans to ‘set aside’ any erroneous ballots that are returned.

Elections officials in a central Pennsylvania county were scrambling on Monday to fix an error on more than 18,000 mail-in ballots for the spring primary, when voters will elect judges for the state Supreme Court and other positions.

Late last week someone noticed that the ballot for Superior Court instructed Republican and Democratic primary voters to pick only one judicial candidate to nominate from their party, when in fact voters could pick two, according to Lancaster County’s elections board. There are two vacancies to fill on the mid-level appeals court.

By early Monday afternoon, postal officials had helped Lancaster, which is about 71 miles west of Philadelphia, intercept and safely secure over 15,000 of the affected ballots, officials said.

The problem comes as voters are just receiving mail-in ballots for the primary, which also includes a vacancy on the state Supreme Court.

Voters will receive replacements with corrected wording and a sheet of instructions. Those who received an erroneous ballot were told to throw it out and wait for a replacement. Ballots from those who fill out and return erroneous versions will be ‘set aside’ by the elections board, the county said.

The deadline to return mail-in ballots is May 16.

Pennsylvania is a closely divided swing state that is expected to be a major battleground in next year’s presidential contest. Lancaster is a Republican-majority area with a large farm economy and a growing suburban population. More than 220,000 Lancaster residents voted in the November gubernatorial election.

Lancaster County also had a printing problem with primary ballots a year ago, when a vendor mailed ballots with the wrong ID code, preventing scanning machines from reading them. About one-third of the 21,000-plus ballots affected last year were able to be properly scanned. The votes had to be painstakingly transferred to fresh ballots.

Lancaster also faced a ballot printing error in 2021, when a large number of primary mail-in ballots had to be counted by hand, delaying final results. In that case, the Lancaster County Board of Elections said some 14,000 multi-sheet ballots had been printed in the wrong order.

Lawmakers in North Dakota’s House passed a bill Monday that would criminalize abortions after six weeks of gestation — even in cases of rape or incest, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The bill still requires approval from the Senate and governor to become law.

Opponents of the bill said six weeks is too early to ban abortions because many women don’t know they are pregnant by that time. Supporters of the bill said passing it would further the state’s tradition of protecting all life, including the unborn.

Republican Rep. Dan Ruby, of Minot, said in support of the bill on the House floor, ‘We have a chance to clean up language in our law, make some improvements to it, adjust to it due to the nature of what we did before the overturning of Roe v. Wade to what is being done now.’

Democratic Rep. Gretchen Dobervich, of Fargo, opposed the bill. The House panel had rejected her amendment to change the six weeks to 12 weeks for ‘a woman who has been the victim of sexual violence in which a pregnancy results.’

Last month, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that a state abortion ban will remain blocked while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds.

‘We’re going to send another message to the North Dakota Supreme Court. This is what this Legislature wants. We want pro-life in North Dakota,’ House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, a Republican of Dickinson, said Monday on the House floor in support of the bill.

The bill passed with a 76-14 vote, largely on party lines but with a few exceptions.

Democratic Rep. Alisa Mitskog, of Wahpeton, was the only person in her party to vote in favor of the bill. And three Republicans voted against it. They were Rep. Eric Murphy of Grand Forks, Rep. Shannon Roers Jones of Fargo and Rep. Steve Swiontek of Fargo.

New York lawmakers passed a three-day budget extension Monday to ensure state operations continue undisrupted as negotiations over the spending plan continue.

The budget was originally due April 1. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers missed that deadline as they tried to reach agreement on changes to the state’s bail law, a housing plan and other policy issues the governor had included in her budget proposal.

A key sticking point has been Hochul’s proposed changes that would give judges more discretion on setting bail for violent felonies. Liberal lawmakers have resisted further changes to the state’s bail law.

This was the third temporary budget extension approved by state lawmakers. Some state lawmakers expressed frustration at the holdup on a final budget.

‘This is the third (extender), and it’s happening despite the fact that one party is controlling our state government,’ said Republican state Assemblymember Edward P. Ra during the floor vote.

He voted in favor of an extender.

Lawmakers must pass another extender Thursday if a state budget isn’t finalized by then, New York City lawmaker Helene Weinstein said during floor deliberations.

The Biden administration is linking lower numbers of migrant encounters at the southern border in March compared to the same time last year to its ongoing efforts to discourage illegal entry by expanding legal pathways – as the Department of Homeland Security prepares for the end of Title 42 next month.

There were 191,899 encounters along the southern border in March, down 14% from 222,574 in March 2022, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Monday. It marks a 23% increase from the 156,138 encounters seen in February, although increases in encounters are typical as the spring and summer months arrive. Over two-thirds (69%) of all encounters were of single adults. 

Specifically, Border Patrol encounters of migrants along the southwest border entering illegally between ports of entry – 162,317 in March 2023 – are down 23% from March 2022 (211,181) and 4% from March 2021 (169,216). An administration official also noted that the increase in Border Patrol encounters between February and March is lower (25%) than the prior two years (33% and 73% for 2022 and 2021.) 

The administration has pointed to measures introduced in January that expanded Title 42 expulsions to include Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Haitians – four nationalities whose encounters had spiked in the prior months. The measures, which were followed by a sharp drop in encounters from a record high in December, also included a humanitarian parole program that allows for up to 30,000 of those nationalities to fly into the U.S. each month if they have not entered illegally and meet certain other criteria including background checks and having a sponsor. In March, 27,783 migrants of those four nationalities were paroled into the U.S.

Numbers remained relatively low through January and February compared to recent years, and while they have increased in March overall, the administration believes those measures are having an impact.

‘The January border enforcement measures continue to hold strong even against the typical migration patterns seen as we enter the warmer months,’ the administration official told Fox News Digital. ‘This month’s encounters are down 23% from last year, and the month-over-month change is the lowest seasonal increase seen in two years.’

Additionally, average encounters of the four nationalities are down from a 7-day average of 1,231 in early January to 339 at the end of March. 

While numbers in 2023 have so far been approximately the same or lower than 2022, it is unclear if that will change once the Title 42 public health order ends on May 11. The order, instituted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the border and has become a key tool in the ongoing migrant crisis now into its third year. In March, 87,662 (46%) of encounters ended in a Title 42 expulsion. 

The order will end along with the COVID-19 public health emergency and officials are concerned about a potentially massive surge at the border once the order drops as migrants believe they have a greater chance of being released into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have pushed back against what they say is misinformation being spread by smugglers.

‘CBP will continue to enforce our immigration laws and ramp up efforts to combat smuggler misinformation as we prepare to return to expedited removal proceedings under Title 8 authorities, which carry stricter consequences like a five-year ban on reentry and potential criminal prosecution for unlawful entry,’ acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement on Monday.

The administration has taken a number of actions to tackle any such surge, including a multi-faceted plan which includes cooperation with NGOs and international partners as well as a surge in resources to the border.

More recently, the administration announced a proposed rule that would make migrants ineligible for asylum if they have crossed into the U.S. illegally and have failed to claim asylum in a country through which they previously traveled.

In anticipation of the order dropping, the administration has also temporarily paused an asylum reform that would allow asylum officers to adjudicate asylum claims at the border within months. It has also launched a pilot program to have migrants hold their ‘credible fear’ interviews while still in CBP custody.

Those moves have seen pushback from immigration rights activists, who claim such measures interfere with the right of migrants to claim asylum in the U.S. Meanwhile, the administration is also facing pressure from Republicans – who have sought to tie the ongoing crisis to the reversal of Trump-era policies by the Biden administration. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has faced a number of grillings on the Hill from Republicans, and will appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.

The administration has taken aim at Republicans for failing to approve funding requests for border readiness, while also calling on Congress to fix what it says is a ‘broken’ immigration system.

The Republican supermajority in West Virginia’s House of Delegates became more lopsided Monday after Del. Elliott Pritt switched from the Democratic Party, the state’s GOP leader said.

Pritt, a teacher, is in his first term after defeating a Republican incumbent in the 2022 election.

‘I want to welcome Delegate Elliott Pritt to the Republican Party,’ West Virginia Republican Party chairwoman Elgine McArdle said in a statement. ‘Like so many West Virginians, Delegate Pritt has recognized that the Democratic Party of today is not the Democratic Party that our parents grew up with.’

The move gives the GOP 89 members in the House, while the Democrats’ ranks dwindled to 11. Pritt’s decision was already accounted for by late morning on the West Virginia Legislature’s official House roster.

Pritt had been the last Democrat in the House in the state’s southern coalfields.

The 34-member state Senate also has a GOP supermajority with 31 Republicans and three Democrats.

The move continues a Republican wave in the state that started a decade ago. After the 2014 election, the GOP took control of the state Senate and House from Democrats for the first time in more than eight decades.

Buoyed by criticism of former two-term President Barack Obama’s energy policies in coal-rich West Virginia, registered Democrats in 2014 fell below 50% for the first time since 1932. There are now about 456,000 registered Republicans, or 39.6% of all registered voters in West Virginia, according to the secretary of state’s office. That compares with about 372,000 registered Democrats, or 32.3%.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is the only Democrat to currently hold statewide office.

California Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., differentiated between the prolonged absences from the Senate of Sens. John Fetterman, D-Penn., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., amid growing calls for Feinstein to resign, saying Feinstein has yet to solidify a return date while Fetterman has. 

‘[Sen. Feinstein] hasn’t been showing up and she has no intention. We don’t know if she’s even going to show up. She has no return date,’ Khanna told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream. ‘In contrast, Senator Fetterman has said that he’s going to show back up on April 17. So, it’s one thing to take medical leave and come back. It’s another thing where you’re just not doing the job.’

Khanna made headlines last week for taking to Twitter to call for Feinstein’s resignation, writing, ‘We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty,’ and saying she can ‘no longer fulfill her duties.’ 

Feinstein, 89, was hospitalized last month for shingles and has faced other health issues, including concerning reports related to her mental fitness. A recent statement from her office said she will continue to work from her home in San Francisco while also asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ‘to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work.’

Likewise, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression a little over a month after starting his six-year Senate term. He was later released from the hospital on March 31 after a six-week hospital stay and is expected to pick up his Senate responsibilities this coming week. 

‘The reality here is there’s the sense, ‘Well you need to have a deference to these senators who have served so long.’ How about a deference to the American people? How about an expectation that if you sign up to do one of these jobs, you show up?’ Khanna said Sunday. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. 

Most recently, Khanna again took to Twitter to respond to whether sexism was truly behind the calls for Feinstein’s resignation, saying it was instead ‘common sense.’

‘Or is it common sense? There is no job I know of where you can just continue to not show up and people think that’s perfectly fine. We live in a democracy. The people are the boss,’ Khanna wrote on Thursday. 

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently suggested sexism was at play amid Feinstein’s resignations calls.

‘It’s interesting to me. I don’t know what political agendas are at work that are going after Sen. Feinstein in that way. I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way,’ Pelosi told reporters Wednesday. 

A spokesperson for Pelosi told Fox News Digital that ‘Speaker Pelosi’s comment was not referencing any specific case, but commenting on the historic attitude.’

A number of individuals have already announced they will be running to replace Feinstein come her retirement in 2025, among them Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., whom Khanna has already endorsed. When asked if his calls for Feinstein’s resignation were politically motivated, Khanna said they have nothing to do with the current race. 

‘This has nothing to do with the current race because a caretaker would solve that. This has to do with someone who is just not showing up,’ Khanna said. ‘And I said out loud what people have been saying in private, and this is how the Beltway works.’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went after Republicans who ‘justify’ the leak of classified documents on Ukraine and China allegedly by a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, arguing that to ‘sugarcoat’ the behavior because the information paints the Biden administration in a negative light ‘will destroy America’s ability to defend itself.’ 

‘I’ve been to Saudi Arabia and Israel. I can promise you it’s been very damaging,’ Graham, appearing from Jerusalem, told ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sunday. ‘There’s information about Mossad supposedly helping the protesters. There’s information about the air defense capability of Ukraine. And everybody in the region is really worried because who wants to share information with the United States if you’re going to read about it in the paper or find it on the Internet? So this has done a lot of damage to us in the region.’ 

FBI agents arrested Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Douglas Teixeira on Thursday after U.S. intelligence documents that had critical information about the war in Ukraine and Chinese relations were posted on the chat app Discord. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Teixeira is being investigated for the ‘alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information.’ 

Graham is to be briefed with other U.S. senators behind closed doors in more detail on the extent of the leaks. 

‘The system failed. This is a major failure. And those who are trying to sugarcoat this on the right, you cannot allow a single individual of the military intelligence community to leak classified information because they disagree with policy,’ Graham said. 

‘I don’t know what led to this airman’s actions, but he’s done a lot of damage to our standing. It’s very hard to get people to come forward right now to tell us about things we need to know about. If they feel like they’re going to be compromised,’ he continued. ‘The sources and methods of how we collect on adversaries have been compromised, and I am stunned that somebody at that level could have so much access. So the question is, how did he get it, and why did he do it? And some people need to be fired over this.’

RUSSIAN OFFICIAL SUGGESTS LEAKED US DOCUMENTS MAY BE ATTEMPT TO ‘MISLEAD THE ENEMY’ 

‘As you mentioned, that there are some on the right that are not only sugarcoating it, but actually applauding him,’ the ABC host pressed Graham. ‘I mean, take a look at what Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted. She said, ‘Jack Teixeira is White, male, Christian and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more.”

‘What they’re suggesting will destroy America’s ability to defend itself,’ Graham responded. ‘That it’s okay to release classified information based on your political views. That the ends justify the means. It is not okay if you’re a member of the military intelligence community, and you disagree with American policy, and you think you’re going to be okay when it comes to leaking classified information.’

‘There is no justification for this and for any member of Congress to suggest it’s okay to leak classified information because you agree with the cause is terribly irresponsible and puts America in serious danger,’ he added.

Fox News’ Maria Lencki contributed to this report.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell admitted Sunday that people are ‘taking advantage’ of bail reform laws backed by Democrats in the state capital of Albany, while also lamenting that the ‘perception of feeling unsafe’ remains in the Big Apple despite the number of shootings and homicides being ‘down by the double digits.’

‘What do you say to those who still look at New York City as an unsafe hellscape where not only are the residents cowering in fear, but anyone who visits should cower,’ MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked the commissioner on ‘The Sunday Show.’

For the first quarter of 2022, New York City was down in five of the major crime categories, Sewell noted. 

‘The numbers mean one thing, but when we talk about the numbers, we have to understand that the numbers actually represent people, and that’s what matters,’ the commissioner said. ‘And if those people don’t feel safe in this city, that’s something we have to address as well. It’s not just a matter of making sure they are safe. It’s a matter of making sure they feel that safety as well. When people live in a safe city, they don’t think about it. When they feel as if though the city isn’t safe, that’s all they think about.’

‘And the mayor and I made sure that we took all of our partners to make sure that we address that perception, feeling of being unsafe,’ Sewell said. ‘And that’s not just the responsibility of the police department. That’s a responsibility for everyone. We say all the time that public safety is a shared responsibility. We work with social services, mental health professionals, the department of sanitation, because all of these things come into play when you’re making a city safe, and you’re making a city a place people feel they want to visit and work’ 

‘Bail reform is specifically mentioned by Republicans in this conversation. But your office is working to stem recidivism. Am I correct?’ Capehart asked. 

‘Recidivism is our focus. There are a limited number of people in this city that continue to commit a disproportionate number of crimes,’ Sewell said. ‘But I think when we talk about bail reform, we use that term, but it’s really criminal justice reform. There are a number of that legislation that present challenges for us and the criminal justice system in New York City as a whole. So while we are focused on recidivism, I have said over and over again that judges should have the ability to determine whether someone is a public safety threat, when they determine whether they should remand, set bail, or release.’

‘I think those reforms were well-meaning, but there are people taking advantage of those reforms, and it’s causing detriment to our city,’ the commissioner added. 

For the month of February 2023, overall index crime compared to February 2022 declined by 5.6% – driving a 0.4% reduction in overall index crime year-to-date compared to 2022, the NYPD said in a press release on March 3. February 2023 also saw the number of overall shooting incidents and murders in New York City both continue their week-over-week and month-over-month declines. Additionally, the number of hate crimes in New York City declined by 69% in February 2023 compared to the same period a year ago.

Citywide shooting incidents decreased in February by 14.7%, the NYPD said, further extending the double-digit declines of 2022 driven by steep reductions in the Bronx, Queens, and Northern Manhattan. Notably, the NYPD has driven a 10.5% decrease in citywide robberies in February 2023. 

‘We worked together with our partners, our DAs, our communities, our businesses to make sure we input precision policing to be able to go to the drivers of crime and those people who willingly commit crimes, who willingly possess illegal guns and use them against the people of this city,’ Sewell said. ‘So a number of things came into play. We have a gun violence strategies partnership. They meet every single day to go over the shootings and the arrests to be able to put forth the strongest cases possible for prosecution to be able to hold these people accountable, to be able to make sure they are suffering the consequences for their actions.’ 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams spoke of the crime rate in the Big Apple during a Friday appearance on CNN. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a field hearing in New York on Monday led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. CNN host Don Lemon noted that the hearing is intended to focus on how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s policies have led to an increase in violent crime and dangerous communities for New York City residents. Bragg’s office is responsible for the indictment of former President Donald Trump.

‘New York City crime is really trending in the right direction. Shootings are down, homicides are down,’ Adams said in response. ‘We’re going up to the seven majors. If anything, he should be in a conversation with Police Commissioner Sewell to find out what we’re doing here. But this is really a charade, and it’s just unfortunate, during a time like this, they will use taxpayers dollars to host this charade.’

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said Sunday that Republicans need to stop burying their ‘heads in the sand’ and move more to the center on abortion if they want to start winning elections again.

During an appearance on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ Mace slammed any anti-abortion policies that don’t explicitly provide exceptions for rape and incest or fail to offer solutions for women seeking OBGYN care.

‘We need to find a middle ground on this issue, and I have a great pro-life voting record,’ she said. ‘But some of the stances we take and especially when it comes to rape and incest, protecting the life of the mother, it’s so extreme that middle, independent voters, right of center, left of center, they cannot support us.’

‘We’ve got 14 counties in South Carolina that don’t have a single OBGYN doctor,’ she continued. ‘So, if we’re going to ban abortion, what are we doing to make sure women have access to birth control? What are we doing about, how do we improve adoption services in our country? What about the kids that are not wanted? What about our foster care system? What about getting nurses that can treat women who need OBGYN care in those rural areas? What are we doing about getting birth control over the counter at pharmacies? There are a lot of things that we can do to protect life and not alienate the independent voter.’

Mace argued that American voters have dramatically shifted to the left on abortion since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

‘We have not learned our lesson from the midterm election,’ she said. ‘We went mildly pro-choice to being a vast majority of voters being pro-choice after Roe v. Wade. It changed the entire electoral environment in ‘22.’

‘What I saw last year in the midterm elections, I saw us lose seats we should have won,’ she continued. ‘It feels like we’re burying our heads in the sand. And every time I stick my head out and I take a position, I take it very publicly. Republicans will call me privately and then I say, ‘Well, what bill can we do, do you want to do with me, what press conference?’ And then there’s silence. It’s crickets, and it’s tone deaf, and we’re afraid of the issue because we’re afraid of our base. But that’s not what the base is.’

Mace also responded to criticism from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which said the congresswoman ‘denounced certain protections for unborn children’ and gave her a ‘B’ rating.

‘I find it ironic that Susan B Anthony would attack me,’ Mace said. ‘I’m a victim of rape, I advocate for women who have been raped, and that organization will no longer talk to my office about pro-life legislation because I’m talking about birth control. I mean, some of these groups have gotten so over the top and extreme.’

A  super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released its first-ever television ad attacking former President Donald Trump on Sunday, pushing back on Trump’s own aggression toward DeSantis.

Never Back Down PAC titled the ad ‘Fight Democrats, not Republicans,’ and went after Trump for his recent attacks on the popular Florida governor. Trump has recently dubbed DeSantis ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ and has pushed the claim that he wants to dismantle Social Security.

‘Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York, so why is he spending millions attacking the Republican governor of Florida?’ the ad begins. ‘Trump is stealing pages from the Biden-Pelosi playbook, repeating lies about social security.’

The ad goes on to play a soundbyte from DeSantis saying he and other Republicans have no plans to ‘mess with’ social security. It then also plays a clip of Trump himself saying entitlements and social security would ‘at some point’ be on the table for changes.

‘Trump should fight Democrats, not lie about Governor DeSantis,’ the ad says. ‘What happened to Donald Trump?’

Trump’s camp responded sharply: ‘DeSantis is colluding with his globalist handlers to go full Never Trump in order to gaslight the people into thinking that Medicare and Social Security should be ripped away from hard-working Americans. President Trump has made it clear that he will always stand on the side of Americans, and protect benefits seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives,’ said spokesperson Steven Cheung.

While DeSantis has yet to announce a presidential run for 2024, he is widely considered a strong potential challenger to Trump for the Republican nomination.

Beyond Trump and DeSantis, major players in the GOP primary race include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and former Vice President Mike Pence. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also formally entered the race, while former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he does not plan to enter.

While Trump has held a relatively consistent lead over DeSantis in many polls, DeSantis world appears to be revving its engines in preparation for a widely-expected campaign announcement.