ARCHIVE – The Supreme Court is the highest court of the United States in Washington. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP/dpa
Keystone
The US Supreme Court has stopped an attempt by Republicans to change the rules for voting in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania shortly before the presidential election. The justices rejected a motion seeking to not count certain provisional ballots in the state. These ballot papers are used when there is doubt about a person’s eligibility to vote. They are kept separately and only counted after verification.
The court’s decision allows people whose postal voting documents were rejected because a security envelope was missing to still cast their vote in person – in the form of a provisional ballot. The Republicans had demanded that these votes not be counted. This would potentially have invalidated thousands of postal votes, which are often attributed to Democratic voters.
The decision could have legal repercussions
The court’s decision allows those votes to be counted for now, but the Supreme Court could revisit it later. Further legal disputes are possible in the coming days.
Disputes like these are not uncommon in US elections. However, there are concerns that there could be heated arguments about the validity of votes even after election day on November 5th. After his election defeat in 2020, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump raised allegations of manipulation – which were rejected by the courts – and this time again sowed doubts about the integrity of the election.
In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court’s decision has particular significance because the state is considered a key state in the election campaign. With its 19 electors, the most populous of the seven “swing states” could be decisive for the outcome of the election.
SDA
