A Pennsylvania judge ruled Thursday that state officials exceeded their authority by extending the deadline for voters to cure their ballots through photo identification.
After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the state’s move to extend the deadline for counting ballots from Nov. 3 to Nov. 6, Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar also extended the time for voters to cure their ballots by providing proof of identification.
The state law had allowed six days after the election for voters to provide proof for their ballots to count, which would have been Nov. 9. But Ms. Boockvar attempted to change that deadline to Nov. 12.
The court said the ballots that had been segregated after her unilateral extension could not be counted past Nov. 9.
It’s a win for the Trump campaign, as a small number of the ballots won’t be tabulated in the battleground state in which presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden is leading President Trump by 54,588 votes.
The president’s campaign has tried to intervene in a case pending before the Supreme Court where Pennsylvania Republicans are arguing Ms. Boockvar also exceeded her authority in allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 to arrive until Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. State officials say about 10,000 ballots arrived during that three-day extension, meaning the amount is not enough to reverse Mr. Biden’s lead over the president.
The high court has not agreed to hear the case.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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