Supreme Court allows Pennsylvania to count challenged provisional ballots, rejecting Republican plea

PENNSYLVANIA — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal by Republicans that could have resulted in thousands of provisional ballots being counted in Pennsylvania, as presidential campaigns race in the final days before the election in the nation’s most 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 ruling is a victory for voting rights advocates, who have tried to force counties — primarily Republican-controlled counties — to allow voters to cast provisional ballots on Election Day if they realized their mail-in ballots would get rejected for various garden variety errors.

Long lines, some confusion on last day for on-demand voting in Bucks County

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

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

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

The ruling comes as voters had their last chance Friday to request a mail-in ballot in a suburban Philadelphia county, while one vacant county in the state offered voters who did not receive a mail-in ballot one more chance to get one.

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

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot has passed in Pennsylvania. But the judge’s ruling means the Erie County elections office will be open every day through Monday for voters to come in, cancel the mail-in ballot they didn’t receive in the mail and get another one at the counter.

In the Bucks County suburbs of Philadelphia, a court set a 5 p.m. deadline for voters there to request and receive a mail-in ballot.

Lines outside the county election office in Doylestown were long throughout the day — snaking down the sidewalk — with the process lasting about two hours by Friday afternoon.

Nakesha McGuirk, 44, a Democrat from Bensalem, zoomed in on the line and said, “I didn’t expect it to be this long. But I’ll keep it.”

She faces a long commute next week and is concerned about her ability to make it to the polls on Election Day. “I thought rather than risk not getting home in time to go to the polls, we’d better get it done that way sooner,” said McGuirk, a Harris supporter.

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

“I just want to make sure I get my ballot in and it counts,” said Lonieski, 62, who was joined by his 18-year-old son, who voted for the first time.

The line steadily thinned as 5pm approached. One last straggler ran to make it to the deadline as poll workers merrily counted the seconds. “Let’s go! Hurry up! You can do it!” shouted a spectator. The crowd burst into applause as she walked through the door – just in time.

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