this Supreme Court on friday Pennsylvania voters with mail-in ballots were allowed to submit separate provisional in-person ballots that were flagged as potentially defective, causing losses for Republicans.
The justices, without a clear dissent, rejected a Republican request to halt last week’s ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
The court’s conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote a brief statement saying that while it was an issue of “considerable importance,” the court had several reasons not to get involved at this stage. Two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, also issued his statement.
As Alito noted, the case stems from a dispute over two ballots submitted during the election. “Long completed” This year’s Democratic primary in Butler County. While it’s unclear how many votes this legal theory would affect if applied to a general election, it could be several thousand If any statewide races come close to being played in key battleground states, there would be significant legal ramifications.
The Supreme Court’s action does not conclusively resolve the legal issue, which will likely return to the justices.
Even before the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling, many Pennsylvania counties that administer elections were already allowing voters to cast provisional ballots without mail-in ballots containing secrecy envelopes. Some don’t.
More lawsuits are likely to come in the coming days.
Republicans objected after a state court concluded that machines detecting mail-in ballots that lacked the secondary “secrecy envelope” required by Pennsylvania law were invalid and therefore allowed voters to cast provisional ballots.
Such ballots automatically notify voters that there is a problem with the ballot that can be resolved by voting in person.
In filings with the Supreme Court, Republicans said state law requires that any ballot that does not meet strict standards be rejected and voters not allowed to recast their ballots. Under their interpretation of the law, that includes not only ballots without secrecy sleeves, but also ballots that are undated, incorrectly dated or missing signatures.
The state, which is not sued and is not a defendant in the case, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court urging the justices not to intervene, saying the court’s ruling did not trigger dramatic consequences.
Lawyers for the state wrote that the Supreme Court’s intervention would only prevent two Democratic primary votes from being counted months after the fact.
The lawsuit raises a legal question of interest to the court’s conservatives: whether the Pennsylvania high court’s ruling unlawfully infringes on the Legislature’s authority to set election rules under the U.S. Constitution.
The issue was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling last year that largely rejected the “separate state legislature” theory that holds that legislatures have unchecked power over elections, while revisiting it for the future. Questions are left open.
Republicans in the 2020 election have repeatedly argued that Democratic officials and state courts improperly changed election rules largely to address health concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The cases provided fodder for then-President Donald Trump’s failed efforts to overturn his election defeat. Trump in 2020 also frequently criticized the expanded use of mail-in voting.
The latest case involves two Butler County voters, Faith Genser and Frank Matis, who sent defective mail-in ballots in the primary and were told they would not be cast. Counted. They then voted in person.
They sued after being told their votes would not be counted. The Republican National Committee then got involved.
Guenther and Mattis lost in the trial court, but the intermediate appeals court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in their favor, prompting Republicans to appeal again to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Republican National Committee and its affiliated attorneys have filed a series of lawsuits in battleground states including Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 election, including Trump exacerbating unfounded concerns Widespread election fraud.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by just over 80,000 votes.
