In an order Friday night, the Supreme Court upheld a state Supreme Court ruling related to the primary election that allows people with errors on their ballot envelopes to vote provisionally.
Judge Alito wrote the following in his order:
The stay petition filed with Judge Alito and referred to the court was denied.
Statement from Justice Alito, assisted by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, regarding the denial of the stay request.
The case concerns a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that adopted a controversial interpretation of a key provision of Pennsylvania election law.
Specifically, the court held that provisional ballots must be counted within the time required by law, even if the voter previously submitted an invalid mail-in ballot.
Applicants argue that this interpretation ignores the plain meaning of state election law. See 25 Pa. Cons. Stat. §3050(a.4)(5)(ii) (2019), and argues that its interpretation is so far removed that it also violates the Elections and Electors Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. See “Art”. I, §4, cl. 1; Fine Arts. II, §1, cl. 2; Moore v. Harper, 600 US 1, 37 (2023). In an effort to prevent the county election board from following that interpretation in next week’s election, the petitioners are asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the ruling or at least order the seizure of ballots.
It may be influenced by its interpretation.
The application of the state Supreme Court’s interpretation in the upcoming election is a very important issue, but even if we agree with the petitioners’ federal constitutional claims (a question on which I do not take a position at this time), we do not agree with their could not prevent the consequences he feared. The lower court’s ruling concerns just two votes in Pennsylvania’s long-completed primary election. Upholding the ruling would not impose binding obligations on Pennsylvania officials responsible for conducting this year’s elections. And since it is the only state Because the election official involved in this case is a member of one small county’s board of elections, he cannot order other boards of elections to quarantine the affected ballots.
For the reasons set forth above, I consent to the order dismissing the application.
In Pennsylvania, to expand voting by mail, Republicans pushed for rules requiring envelopes to be signed and dated and ballots to be placed in a secure inner envelope. If a ballot is invalidated due to a date or signature error, the state system notifies voters of the error, and most counties in the state allow voters to cast provisional ballots, which add to the election total. will be counted.
playing cards and the RNC are suing to prevent voters from discarding provisional ballots and ballots. The Supreme Court sided with Democrats and the state Supreme Court, which upheld voters’ ability to cast crucial provisional ballots.
Pennsylvania is a state close to an election where President Trump’s efforts to potentially disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters have failed.
The ruling is a defeat for Trump and a victory for democracy in Pennsylvania.
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