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.
