On November 6, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania asks the United States Supreme Court to order the separation of absentee ballots arriving after election day from in-person ballots and to halt the processing of those ballots.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court previously allowed the state to accept mail-in / absentee ballots up through Friday, as long as they were mailed before polls closed on Tuesday.
The request from the RPP would stall all ballots arriving after polls closed, blocking them from being counted until a decision is made in the GOP’s attempts to overturn the state court’s ruling.
Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar already ordered the ballots to be separated on Thursday.
The “targeted remedy” PA Republicans are hoping for—trashing all ballots arriving between Nov. 4-6—will do nothing to turn Pennsylvania or the election: Biden is on pace to win the state by at least tens of thousands of votes, while reports say only hundreds are arriving “late”.
Steven Mazie, The Economist
The Supreme Court responds in the evening, issuing the order to segregate the ballots (which was already happening) but ignoring the request to halt counting them.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered Pennsylvania election boards to segregate mail ballots that arrived after Election Day and count them separately from the state’s overall vote tally, leaving open the possibility that the justices could exclude the late-arriving ballots in a subsequent ruling.
The Hill
Some highlights from the filing:
Sources
https://twitter.com/stevenmazie/status/1324796412152995847
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/06/2020-presidential-election-republican-party-asks-supreme-court-to-halt-count-in-pennsylvania.html
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/524900-supreme-court-orders-separate-count-of-late-arriving-pa-ballots
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