The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that voters who cast faulty mail-in ballots can afterward cast provisional votes.
In a four to three ruling, the state Supreme Court found that the Butler County Board of Elections must count the provisional ballots of voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for not properly following instructions. Voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for lacking the secrecy envelope, missing information, or sporting inaccurate information must now be allowed to vote via provisional ballot.
“It is difficult to discern any principled reading of the Free and Fair Election Clause that would allow the disenfranchisement of voters as punishment for failure to conform to the mail-in voting requirements when voters properly availed themselves of the provisional voting mechanism,” the majority ruling said.
Butler County residents had sued the election board after their provisional ballots were refused in the 2024 primary. After an intermediate court ruled in favor of the residents, the case was appealed by the Republican National Committee.
A provisional ballot is cast if a voter’s eligibility to vote is put under question, then only counted after it is confirmed.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party celebrated the result.
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“While Republicans try to block your vote, Democrats are protecting it and standing up for the principle that every eligible voter has a right to make their voice heard, no matter how they vote,” Harris campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak and Democratic National Committee spokesman Alex Floyd said in a joint statement, obtained by the New York Times. “This ruling reaffirms that principle.”
Pennsylvania is the largest battleground state, with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck and neck.