The Republican National Committee asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, Oct. 28 to issue an emergency order in Pennsylvania that could stop thousands of ballots from being counted in the election. Last week, the key battleground state’s supreme court ruled election officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for being turned in without a secrecy envelope.
NEW: The RNC filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking to undo a ruling by Pennsylvania's top court that allowed voters to cast provisional ballots in the event that they made errors on their mail-in ballots that would have precluded them from being counted. pic.twitter.com/P6My1I9fs7
— Kaelan Deese (@KaelanDC) October 28, 2024
Republicans say if the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision remains on Election Day, the ballots in question should be set aside and not added to the official count until the legal battle plays out. According to the University of Florida Election Lab, more than 2 million mail-in ballots have been requested so far, and roughly 1.4 million returned, in Pennsylvania.
Also on Monday, Virginia officials asked the Supreme Court to move forward with removing around 1,600 alleged non-citizens from its voter rolls. A lower court blocked Virginia from continuing its systematic voter removal program that was launched in August, exactly 90 days before the election.
A provision of the National Voter Registration Act requires states to complete purging ineligible voters from registration lists by 90 days before federal elections.