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Supreme Court denies quick look at Pa. ballot deadline

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Suzanne Almeida appears in Wednesday’s Zoom call with the media.

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Kathy Boockvar

The U.S. Supreme Court will not conduct an expedited review of a state court decision to count ballots as long as they arrive at county election offices by Friday, Nov. 6.

But under guidance issued Wednesday from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, any ballots received after 8 p.m. Nov. 3 will be segregated, should the Supreme Court take up the case after the election.

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania asked the nation’s highest court to review a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision to allow mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3, and received by 5 p.m. Nov. 6, to be counted.

In a four-page opinion issued late Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito noted that decision “squarely alters” what the state Legislature put into place: that all mail-in ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Alito acknowledged a ruling before next Tuesday would be “highly desirable,” but noted there is not enough time to render a decision.

“That question has national importance, and there is a strong likelihood that the state Supreme Court decision violates the Federal Constitution,” he wrote. “The provisions of the Federal Constitution conferring on state legislatures, not state courts, the authority to make rules governing federal elections would be meaningless if a state court could override the rules adopted by the legislature simply by claiming that a state constitutional provision gave the courts the authority to make whatever rules it thought appropriate for the conduct of a fair election.”

Should the U.S. Supreme Court take up the issue post-election, the case can be decided on a shortened schedule, Alito wrote. Newly appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not participate in the decision, he noted.

Segregating those ballots received after 8 p.m. Nov. 3 will offer a remedy if the justices decide they should not be counted.

Earlier in the day, two officials urged that anyone who hasn’t yet mailed a ballot either drop it off at an elections office or turn it in at a polling place on Election Day and vote there.

Suzanne Almeida, interim director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, which bills itself as a nonpartisan, good government organization and lobbyist, in a Zoom teleconference with members of the media, said, “We are urging voters not to wait.”

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and Gov. Tom Wolf have also been advocating voters drop off ballots at their local elections office or report to a polling place on Election Day, turning in all the mail-in ballot materials, and using a voting machine.

“At this point, we are not recommending anyone put their ballots in the mail,” Boockvar said Wednesday morning in her own Zoom press conference, apparently meaning “regular” mail.

Boockvar also mentioned an alternative to dropping off at an elections office or voting in person: Filling out the ballot and properly using the envelopes to send the ballot via guaranteed overnight mail.

Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots come with a postage-paid envelope, but this substitute for a 55-cent stamp does not cover United States Postal Service overnight delivery, which, according to its website, starts at $26.35. Private companies such as FedEx and UPS also handle overnight deliveries.

If someone who has applied for a mail-in or absentee ballot arrives at a polling place without the mail-in materials, he or she can vote a provisional ballot, which must be evaluated by a county-appointed canvass board that begins its tasks the Friday after each election.

Polling places are open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Any changes in the extension for domestic civilian mailed ballots would not affect the Nov. 10 deadline for civilian overseas and military ballots, which must be postmarked on or before Election Day, Nov. 3.

Anyone with election-related questions can call the Department of State at 1-800-VOTESPA.

Common Cause also has an election hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE.

Pennsylvanians have requested 3,095,401 mail-in and absentee ballots, 1.9 million from Democrats, 786,000 from Republicans.

Early votes handled over the counter at elections offices, a new feature of the 2019 Election Code revamping, have so far totaled 113,749, according to Boockvar.

Herald-Standard Managing Editor Jennifer Garofalo contributed to this story.

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