WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on June 6 rejected a Republican challenge to a Pennsylvania court’s ruling on provisional ballots, a case that could have restricted how much leeway state courts have to interpret federal election rules.
During the 2024 election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said voters should be able to cast provisional ballots if they failed to encase an absentee ballot in the required secrecy sleeve.
State and national Republicans argued that would give voters an “unauthorized do-over” for “naked ballots” or for other mistakes on mail-in votes.
And they said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision usurped the power the Constitution gives state legislatures to set federal election rules.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court declined the GOP’s emergency request to intervene as ballots were being cast.
The Republican National Committee said the justices should decide the issue now because they can do so without worrying whether their decision would affect an ongoing election.
Related: Supreme Court to decide if challenge to Illinois’ grace period for mail-in ballots can proceed
Pennsylvania Democrats countered that the 2024 ruling by the state supreme court was consistent with the text of state election law and with the intent of the legislators who set the rules.
There’s no good reason, Democrats said, for the Supreme Court to review what was a routine interpretation of a state law.
Getting involved would invite appeals in “any and every state-law election case,” lawyers for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party told the justices.
“That is not a regime the Court should foster,” they wrote.
The case is the second about election law the court agreed to hear next term. They will also decide whether a GOP congressman can challenge Illinois’ decision to count mail-in ballots that are cast, but not received, before the end of Election Day.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court rejects GOP election-rule challenge in Pennsylvania
