What You Need to Know
The Supreme Court has declined to intervene in a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling requiring election officials to count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail ballots were invalid due to missing secrecy envelopes. This decision has significant implications for the upcoming election in the battleground state.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that provisional ballots cast by voters with invalid mail ballots must be counted.
Republicans sought to overturn this ruling, arguing that it could lead to the counting of "tens of thousands" of invalid votes.
The Supreme Court declined to intervene, allowing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling to stand.
This decision could impact the outcome of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
The dispute arose after two voters in Butler County submitted mail ballots without secrecy envelopes. The state requires voters to use these envelopes and to sign and date the mailing envelopes. Failure to comply renders the ballot invalid.
The voters were notified that their ballots might not be counted and were advised to cast provisional ballots in person. They did so, but the county board of elections did not count their provisional ballots.
The voters challenged this decision in state court, arguing that the elections board acted wrongly. The trial court disagreed, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of the voters, stating that provisional ballots must be counted in such cases.
Republicans argued that the ruling would lead to the counting of invalid votes and that the state supreme court was wrong to change the rules so close to the election.
Lawyers for the voters argued that Republicans were seeking to disrupt election rules and that the majority of county election boards and the Pennsylvania Department of State have been counting such provisional ballots for years.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling to stand means that provisional ballots cast by voters with invalid mail ballots will be counted. This could impact the outcome of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
The dispute over provisional ballots in Pennsylvania is one of several related to the election that the Supreme Court has been asked to intervene in.
The Supreme Court has also ruled on cases related to voter registration and ballot access in other states.
The Supreme Court's decision on the Pennsylvania voting ruling has significant implications for the upcoming election. It is important to stay informed about this and other election-related rulings to understand how they may impact the outcome of the election.