Supreme Court rejects GOP appeal, allowing provisional ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania

By Merritt Hughes

The Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have prevented thousands of provisional ballots from being counted in Pennsylvania on Friday. This decision holds major implications as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris make their final push in Pennsylvania, the nation’s largest battleground state.

The justices upheld a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision requiring election officials to count provisional ballots from voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected due to errors. Voting rights advocates celebrated the ruling as a win, especially since it compels counties—specifically Republican-controlled counties—to allow voters to submit provisional ballots if their mail-in ballots contain minor mistakes.

Despite this setback, Republicans claimed a partial victory with a separate Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling. The court dismissed a last-minute request from voting rights advocates to ensure that mail-in ballots missing a correct, handwritten date on the outer envelope would still be counted.

These rulings are the latest developments in a years-long legal battle over mail-in voting in Pennsylvania. In this state, every vote has historically carried significant weight in presidential elections. Over the past four years, Republicans have consistently pushed for strict rules on mail-in voting, aiming to disqualify ballots over technicalities. Mail-in ballots, which are predominantly cast by Democrats, have been a key focus of GOP litigation efforts.

As a result of Friday’s decisions, Pennsylvania election officials are preparing to help thousands of voters cast provisional ballots on Election Day if their mail-in ballots were rejected, which could spark additional legal disputes in the days to follow.

As of Thursday, Pennsylvania election offices had received over 1.6 million mail-in ballots. However, around 9,000 of these ballots were flagged due to missing signatures, secrecy envelopes, or handwritten dates, according to state data.

With its 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is expected to play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of this year’s presidential race. It was decided by a narrow margin in 2016 when Trump won, and again in 2020, when Joe Biden took the state.