WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on friday It dealt a blow to Republicans by allowing Pennsylvania voters with mail-in ballots flagged as potentially flawed to submit a separate provisional in-person ballot.
The justices rejected without reservation a Republican request to delay last week’s decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Attorney Ben Geffen, who represents voters in the case, said the Supreme Court’s action marked “an important affirmation of voting rights in Pennsylvania.”
Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court’s conservatives, wrote a brief statement saying that while this is an “important” issue, there are several reasons why the court should not intervene at this stage. His statement was joined by two other conservatives, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The case, Alito noted, arose out of a dispute over two ballots submitted during the election “long time done” Democratic primary in Butler County this year. Although it is unclear exactly how many ballots the legal theory would affect if applied to general elections, several thousand and has major legal ramifications if any statewide races are close in a key swing state.
The Supreme Court’s action does not yet definitively resolve the legal issue that could return to justice.
Even before the state Supreme Court’s recent decision, many of Pennsylvania’s counties that govern elections allowed voters to cast provisional ballots unless mail-in ballots had a privacy envelope. Some did not.
A state court ruled that the mail-in ballots, which determined that the machines did not have the secondary “privacy envelopes” required by Pennsylvania law, were invalid, so the voter was allowed to cast a provisional ballot, a finding contested by Republicans.
Such ballots automatically alert voters in many states that there are problems with the ballots, which can be resolved by in-person voting.
All counties must now accept provisional ballots if a voter submits a mail-in ballot that is deficient as a result of a state court order, Geffen said. However, he added, not all counties notify voters if there is a problem with a mail-in ballot.
In another court ruling that further clarified the road rules leading up to Election Day on Friday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots will not be counted.
Taken together, the two cases “remove a lot of the uncertainty surrounding voting rules lawsuits in Pennsylvania,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA School of Law and NBC News contributor.
“While it is still possible that these issues will return during the very close elections, the chances are now significantly reduced,” he added.
The Democratic National Committee and the Harris-Walz campaign welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision, saying in a joint statement that former President Donald Trump “and his allies are trying to make it harder for your vote to count, but our institutions are stronger than his shame.” attacks.”
A spokesman for the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.
Republicans said in their appeal to the Supreme Court that state law requires the rejection of any ballots that do not meet strict standards and does not allow voters to override the vote. According to their interpretation of the law, this includes not only ballots that do not have a privacy strip, but also ballots that are not dated, incorrectly dated or unsigned.
The state, which was not sued and is not a defendant in the case, filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court, urging the justices not to intervene, saying the state’s highest court’s decision did not create a dramatic reason. to change
State lawyers wrote that Supreme Court intervention would only serve to prevent two votes from being counted in the Democratic primary months after the fact.
The case raises a legal question of interest to conservatives on the Supreme Court, whether the Pennsylvania high court’s ruling unlawfully interferes with the Legislature’s power to set election rules under the U.S. Constitution.
The issue was the subject of a Supreme Court decision last year that largely rejected the “independent state legislature” theory, which says legislatures have unlimited power over elections, while leaving the door open for future revisions.
In the 2020 election, Republicans have repeatedly argued that Democratic officials and state courts inappropriately changed election rules to address health concerns raised largely by the Covid pandemic. These cases provided fodder for then-President Donald Trump’s failed attempts to reverse his election loss. In 2020, Trump also frequently spoke out against the widespread use of mail-in voting.
The latest incident came when two Butler County voters, Faith Genser and Frank Mathis, sent in defective mail-in ballots in the Democratic primary and were told they would not be counted. They then cast a provisional ballot in person.
They appealed to the court after being informed that the votes would not be counted. Then the Republican National Committee got involved.
Genser and Mathis lost at first instance, but an intermediate appeals court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in their favor, prompting Republicans to appeal again to the US Supreme Court.
The Republican National Committee and affiliated lawyers have filed a series of lawsuits in swing states, including Pennsylvania, ahead of the 2024 general election. reinforces unwarranted concerns widespread electoral fraud.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by just over 80,000 votes.