He United States Supreme Court declined for now to intervene in a high-stakes clash over provisional ballots in Pennsylvania, rejecting a republican party attempt to prevent thousands of votes from being counted in the crucial state.

The rejection leaves in force a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that such voters who submit mail-in ballots without the required secrecy envelope are entitled to a second chance. Republicans had tried to block the ruling.

Friday’s order does not prevent the U.S. Supreme Court from ruling after the election that the disputed votes are invalid. That would be a boost to donald trumpThe campaign and a hard blow for the vice president. Kamala Harris‘ – given that many more Democrats vote by mail than Republicans.

The court as a whole gave no explanation, and no judge publicly dissented. But three conservative justices said they agreed with the decision on procedural grounds, noting that the case arose from a now-ended Democratic primary in western Pennsylvania and did not directly involve next week’s election.

Blocking the state court ruling “would not impose any binding obligation on any of the Pennsylvania officials responsible for conducting this year’s election,” the judge said. Samuel Alito wrote for himself and the judges Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

In trying to block the ruling, Republicans pointed to the precedent it will set for upcoming elections. In addition to ballots that lack the secrecy inner envelope – known colloquially as “naked ballots” – the 4-3 ruling is likely to apply to people who did not put the required date on their mail-in ballot.

The order came minutes after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a separate case blocked the undated mail-in vote count.

Of the 1.7 million Pennsylvanians who have already cast their ballots through early voting, 56% are Democrats and 33% are Republicans, according to state figures. Democrat joe biden received 76% of the mail-in vote in 2020, and Trump got only 23%. Biden won the state by about 80,000 votes four years ago.

(Updated with excerpt from Alito’s statement in fourth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter of this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at [email protected]

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