Republicans appeal Pennsylvania’s “naked ballot” voting decision to Supreme Court

Republicans appeal Pennsylvania’s “naked ballot” voting decision to Supreme Court

Republicans asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to step into a fight over provisional ballots in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, bringing a second potentially significant voting case to the high court within days of the election.

The Republican National Committee urged the justices to block a state court ruling that allows people to vote provisionally when election officials identify problems with their mail ballots — specifically, when they fail to put them into a “secrecy” envelope before sending them off in the mail.

Those ballots, because they are missing the secrecy sleeve, are referred to as “naked ballots.”

“This case is of paramount public importance, potentially affecting tens of thousands of votes in a state which many anticipate could be decisive in control of the U.S. Senate or even the 2024 presidential election,” the GOP said in its appeal.

The case arrived hours after Virginia asked the Supreme Court to allow the state to continue a program to remove suspected noncitizens from the voter rolls. Both cases are likely to be handled with remarkable speed — by Supreme Court standards — and could yield orders within days.

The RNC asked the Supreme Court to decide the Pennsylvania case by Friday.

Background on the case: The initial lawsuit was filed by two voters in Butler County, north of Pittsburgh, who initially submitted mail-in ballots. But they didn’t enclose their ballots in the secrecy sleeve before placing them in an outer mailing envelope. A machine scanner identified that problem and the voters received an automated message alerting them that their vote would not be counted.

The voters then showed up at their precincts during the state’s primary election and attempted to cast provisional ballots but learned those votes wouldn’t be counted, either. County election officials said that state law barred them from voting because they had already submitted a mail-in ballot, even though that first ballot was deemed defective.