Supreme Court allows Pennsylvania to count disputed provisional ballots, rejecting Republican motion

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal by Republicans that could have resulted in thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania as presidential campaigns compete in the final days before the election in the nation’s largest battleground state.

The justices upheld a state Supreme Court ruling that election officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected.

The decision is a victory for voting rights advocates who have sought to force counties (primarily Republican-controlled counties) to allow voters to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if their mail-in ballot was rejected due to a simple error. .

While the Supreme Court decision was a setback for Republicans, the GOP separately claimed victory in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. This court has rejected the latest attempt by voting rights advocates to ensure that mail-in ballots that lack the exact handwritten date on the outer envelope will still be counted in this year’s presidential election.

The decisions are the latest in four years of litigation over mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, where every vote actually counts in presidential races. Republicans in dozens of court cases have tried to push for the strictest possible interpretation of throwing out mail-in ballots that are overwhelmingly cast by Democrats.

Taken together, Friday’s nearly simultaneous decisions will provide a major focus on helping thousands of people vote provisionally on Election Day if their mail-in ballots are rejected, as well as possibly new legal challenges.

As of Thursday, about 9,000 of the more than 1.6 million returned ballots had arrived at election offices across Pennsylvania without a secrecy envelope, signature or handwritten date, according to state records.

Pennsylvania is the biggest battleground in this year’s presidential election, with 19 electoral votes, and is expected to play a huge role in the outcome of the election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

The decision was decided by tens of thousands of votes in 2016, when Trump won, and again in 2020, when Democrat Joe Biden won.

A Pennsylvania voting rights lawyer who helped bring both cases said it is almost certain that another case involving undated ballots will return to the state Supreme Court within days of the presidential election if it is close.

“It’s almost certain that this issue will be raised again after the election, especially if it’s a close election,” Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said in an interview.

In an unsigned two-page order, the state’s highest court stayed a lower court decision that required counties to count ballots. The High Court said the case would not apply to the presidential election, which will be decided next week, but accepted the possibility that it would still rule on the case at a later date.

The rulings came as voters on Friday had their last chance to apply for a mail-in ballot in a leading suburban Philadelphia county, while a county across the state gave voters who didn’t receive their ballots in the mail another chance to receive their.

A judge in Erie County, in northwestern Pennsylvania, ruled Friday in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party that about 15,000 people who applied for a mail-in ballot but did not receive one can go to the county elections office and get one. replacement by Monday. .

The deadline to apply to vote by mail has passed in Pennsylvania. But the judge’s order means the Erie County Board of Elections will be open every day until Monday so voters can come in, cancel a mail-in ballot they didn’t receive in the mail and get another one without a prescription.

In suburban Philadelphia, Bucks County, a court set a 5 p.m. deadline for voters to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot after a judge ordered a three-day extension in response to a Trump campaign lawsuit accusing the county of violation of the law. law, pushing voters out of election offices that were struggling to meet demand.

Lines outside the county election office in Doylestown were long all day, snaking down the sidewalk and the process had taken about two hours by Friday afternoon.

Nakesha McGuirk, 44, a Bensalem Democrat, appreciated the line and said, “I didn’t expect the line to be so long. But I’m going to stick it out.”

McGuirk, a Harris supporter, faces a long commute next week and is worried about her ability to get to the polls on Election Day. “I thought that instead of risking not getting home in time to vote, it would be better to just do it early,” she said.

Republican voter Patrick Lonieski, a Trump supporter from Buckingham, also found it more convenient, given his work schedule, to vote Friday in a county he called “key” to the outcome.

“I just want to make sure I get my ballot and it gets counted,” said Lonieski, 62, who was joined by his 18-year-old son, a first-time voter.

As 5:00 pm approached, the line gradually thinned out.

The last straggler ran to meet the deadline as election workers cheerfully counted down the seconds. “Come on! Hurry up! You can do it!” shouted a passerby. People burst into applause when she walked through the door—just in time.

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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report. Levy reported from Harrisburg.