Judges allow provisional voting for Pennsylvania voters

Topline

The Supreme Court rejected a Republican request to block a lower court decision that would have given Pennsylvania voters access to provisional ballots if they spoiled their mail-in ballots, potentially opening the battlefield to thousands of votes that would not have been cast if the Supreme Court the court has sided with the GOP as the court faces an expected slew of last-minute cases over states’ voting rules before Election Day.

Demonstrators gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., December 7, 2022.

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Key facts

The Republican National Committee on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that allows voters to cast a provisional ballot if their mail-in ballots have errors, such as a missing signature or date on the envelope.

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected that request, saying the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision involved just two votes cast in Pennsylvania’s primary election several months ago and that reversing the court’s decision would not result in “any binding obligation” on Pennsylvania officials , “responsible for the conduct of this year’s elections.”

The decision comes as the court weighs in on voting issues in Virginia as Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Monday asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling blocking the state from purging voter rolls to remove 1,600 alleged noncitizens. , which the federal government noted also resulted in the removal of U.S. citizens by mistake.

On Wednesday, the justices sided with the state in a 6-3 decision, overturning the lower court’s decision and allowing Virginia to continue its voter purge, offering no explanation for the decision and only noting that liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have rejected Virginia’s request.

The Justice Department said the removal of voters was illegal because it was done too close to Election Day, since federal law prohibits states from removing voters from the voter rolls less than 90 days before an election, and lower federal district and appellate courts sided with the federal government. government. government by ordering Virginia to reinstate voters to the voter rolls.

What to pay attention to

It remains to be seen how many more disputes the high court will be asked to hear before Election Day.

Tangent

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump, also asked the court to weigh in on his candidacy, asking that his name be removed from the ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin even though voting is underway. On Tuesday, the court rejected those requests, leaving Kennedy on the state ballot.

What we don’t know

If and how the Supreme Court can influence elections. In 2020, Trump and his allies asked the court to hear a series of post-election disputes challenging President Joe Biden’s victory as the former president fought in court to overturn the election results. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected all of those challenges, but it remains to be seen how the conservative 6-3 court will do if it is asked again to weigh in on any post-election lawsuits this cycle. The justices have already ensured Trump’s victory ahead of the general election by blocking Democrats’ efforts to bar him from the state ballot under the 14th Amendment, which prohibits governing states from barring federal candidates.

Amazing fact

The Supreme Court appears to have given itself more latitude in shaping state election rules with its 2023 ruling in Moore v. Harper, Vox notes. The court rejected a legal theory in the case that Trump and his allies tried to use to overturn the 2020 election, which argued that state legislators should have broad authority to set election rules – a power that Trump wanted state legislators to use to overturn their state elections. election results and declare Trump the winner. However, the justices also ruled that state courts cannot challenge the rules for electing state legislators in a way that “exceeds

Key background

Both Republicans and Democrats have filed dozens of lawsuits challenging voting rules ahead of Election Day, especially as Trump and his allies have sowed distrust in the election results and the electoral process. The RNC has launched a massive election integrity effort targeting voting practices that the party believes will lead to voter fraud — even though data shows such fraud is extremely rare and there is no evidence of widespread fraud in recent elections. As GOP-led states tightened voting rules in response to Trump’s claims of fraud, Democrats also filed numerous lawsuits seeking to expand voter access. While legal battles have been playing out in the courts for months, the number of rulings has surged ahead of Election Day, with Marc Elias, a voting rights lawyer working with the Democratic Party, saying on Sunday that 199 lawsuits remain pending in 40 states. .