High Court allows Pennsylvania to count disputed provisional ballots

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.

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

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 date, according to state records.

Pennsylvania is the biggest battleground in this year’s presidential election, with 19 electoral votes cast there. Former President Donald Trump won the state in 2016 but lost it in 2020.

Voters in a popular suburban Philadelphia county heavily courted by presidential candidates had one last chance Friday to apply for a mail-in ballot as the statewide open county gave voters who had not received their mail-in ballots more one chance to get one.

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 for mail-in ballots passed in Pennsylvania, this year’s biggest presidential battleground and a state that has hosted far more visits from Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris than any other.

The judge’s order means the Erie County Board of Elections will be open every day through Monday so voters can come in, cancel a mail-in ballot they didn’t receive in the mail and get another without a prescription, said Cliff Levin, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party.

In Bucks County, a Philadelphia suburb, the court set a 5 p.m. deadline for voters to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot.

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.”

She faces a long commute next week and is worried about her ability to get to the polls on Election Day. “I decided that rather than risk not getting home and voting, it would be better to just do it early,” said McGuirk, a Harris supporter.

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.

A Bucks County judge ordered a three-day extension in response to a Trump campaign lawsuit that alleged voters faced disenfranchisement when they were turned away by county processing offices that struggled to meet demand, leading to frustration and anger among voters. .

The Trump campaign’s lawsuit says people who were in line to apply for a mail-in ballot in person by 5 p.m. Tuesday should have been allowed to receive a ballot even after the deadline. But the Bucks County Board of Elections denied voters that right and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit says.

Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Trauger ruled that the Board of Elections violated the state election code and ordered the deadline to be extended until Friday.

Unlike other states, Pennsylvania does not have true early in-person voting. Voters can apply in advance for mail-in ballots online or in person at county election offices.

It can take about 12 minutes and requires applying for a mail-in ballot, waiting for a barcoded envelope to print, and then if voters choose, they can vote on the spot. Or they can put it in a mailbox or mailbox. Election offices must receive ballots by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

No-excuse mail voting is a relatively new phenomenon in Pennsylvania. The Legislature approved expanding the practice in 2019. In 2020, Trump—with no evidence to back up the claim—claimed that mail voting was rife with fraud, discouraging many Republicans from voting by mail. That changed this year, with Trump and billionaire business mogul Elon Musk endorsing the practice and urging supporters to vote early by mail.

Pennsylvania barely carried Trump in 2016 and flipped to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Bucks County carried Democrat Hillary Clinton by one point in 2016 before Biden extended the Democratic lead to five points in 2020.