The Republican National Committee has filed an emergency stay application after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to allow provisional ballots for those who had improperly cast mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that voters in the state who had improperly cast their mail ballots, such as not using a secure envelope, would be permitted to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.
But state law does not allow for such provisional ballots.
The RNC’s filing noted that Pennsylvania law does not permit provisional ballots under such circumstances and has accused the state’s highest court of seeking to rewrite state law to fit their members’ political preference.
“When the legislature says that certain ballots can never be counted, a state court cannot blue-pencil that clear command into always. And here, the General Assembly could not have been clearer,” the RNC’s attorneys wrote.
RNC Chair Michael Whatley said in a statement: “Pennsylvania law has critically important safeguards to ensure every legal vote is counted properly. We have filed an emergency application in the Supreme Court to preserve those safeguards. Pennsylvanians’ mail ballots must be protected for our country’s most important election.”
Judge Samuel Alito, who handles emergency appeals arising from Pennsylvania, ordered the parties to respond to the RNC’s application by Wednesday.
The RNC is seeking a ruling by Friday in advance of next week’s election. As noted in The Hill, the case is one of four election-related emergency motions at the Supreme Court currently pending.