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

By MIKE CATALINI and MICHAEL RUBINKAM The Associated Press

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in the battleground state.

The justices left in place a state Supreme Court ruling that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected.

As of Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned have arrived at elections offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a date, according to state records.

Pennsylvania is the biggest presidential election battleground this year, with 19 electoral votes. Former President Donald Trump won the state in 2016, then lost it in 2020.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Voters in a bellwether suburban Philadelphia county courted heavily by the presidential candidates had their last chance Friday to apply for a mail-in ballot, as a county clear across the state gave voters who didn’t receive their mail-in ballot another chance to get one.

A judge in Erie County, in Pennsylvania’s northwestern corner, ruled Friday in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party that about 15,000 people who applied for a mail ballot but didn’t receive it may go to the county elections office and get a replacement through Monday.

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot has passed in Pennsylvania, the biggest presidential battleground this year and a state that has hosted far more visits by Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris than any other.

The judge’s ruling means that Erie County’s elections office will be open every day through Monday for voters to go in, cancel the mail-in ballot they didn’t receive in the mail, and get another one over the counter, said Cliff Levine, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party.

In suburban Philadelphia’s Bucks County, a court set a deadline of 5 p.m. for voters there to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot.

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

Nakesha McGuirk, 44, a Democrat from Bensalem, sized up the line and said: “I did not expect the line to be this long. But I’m going to stick it out.”

She faces a long work commute next week and worried about her ability to make it to the polls on Election Day. “I figured that rather than run into the risk of not getting home in time to go and vote, that it would be better to just do it this way early,” said McGuirk, a Harris supporter.

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

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

The line steadily dwindled as 5 p.m. approached. One last straggler broke into a run to make it by the deadline as elections workers cheerfully counted down the seconds. “Let’s go! Hurry up! You can do it!” a bystander yelled. People broke into applause as she walked through the door — just in time.

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

The Trump campaign lawsuit said people who were in line by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline to apply in person for a mail ballot should have been allowed to get a ballot, even after the deadline. However, Bucks County’s election office denied voters that right and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Trauger ruled that the Board of Elections violated the state election code and ordered an extension through Friday.

Unlike other states, Pennsylvania doesn’t have true early in-person voting. Voters can apply early for mail ballots online or in person at county election buildings.

Doing so in person can take about 12 minutes and requires applying for a mail ballot, waiting for a bar-coded envelope to be printed and then, if voters wish, they can cast the ballot on the spot. Or they can put it in a drop box or a mailbox. Election offices must receive the ballots by 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

No excuse mail-in voting is relatively new to Pennsylvania. The Legislature passed an expansion of the practice in 2019. In 2020, Trump — without any evidence to back the claim — said mail-in voting was rife with fraud, which discouraged many Republicans from voting by mail. That’s changed this year, with Trump and billionaire business mogul Elon Musk endorsing the practice and calling on supporters to vote early by mail.

Pennsylvania went narrowly for Trump in 2016 before swinging to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Bucks County backed Democrat Hillary Clinton by a single point in 2016 before Biden widened the Democratic lead to five points in 2020.

___

Associated Press reporter Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.