Supreme Court rejects RNC request to halt Pennsylvania’s counting of provisional ballots

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from Republicans to halt the counting of provisional ballots in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. noted in the order that the court denied the Republican National Committee’s request for an injunction and to sequester provisional ballots.

The RNC intervened in a lawsuit brought against Butler County by voters whose provisional ballots were not counted because they lacked a proper envelope.

The RNC was the applicant at the high court. The GOP argued the state’s highest court ignored state law in its decision, greenlighting the counting of provisional ballots when it ruled the ballot must be counted if the voter had cast his or her mail-in ballot on time.

A provisional ballot is cast if there is a technical issue with a mail-in ballot, such as a lack of signature or date or an envelope error.

Republicans had charged that the decision creates a curing problem for the mail-in ballots.

The RNC had sought to have provisional ballots sequestered for future challenge if the justices refused to halt the Pennsylvania court’s decision, but the justices denied that request.

In a statement joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, Justice Alito said the original case pertains to just two ballots in the primary that has long passed.

“The lower court’s judgment concerns just two votes in the long-completed Pennsylvania primary. Staying that judgment would not impose any binding obligation on any of the Pennsylvania officials who are responsible for the conduct of this year’s election. And because the only state election officials who are parties in this case are the members of the board of elections in one small county, we cannot order other election boards to sequester affected ballots,” he wrote.