Battleground state's high court rejects GOP challenge to provisional ballot rules

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state must count provisional ballots for voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected or improperly filled out in a 4-3 decision that could provide thousands of voters in the state with a second chance to cast their vote.

The ruling is the latest in a string of defeats for Republicans, who have filed nearly 100 election-related court challenges in recent weeks in what they say are legal challenges aimed at preventing voter fraud through absentee and mail-in ballots. 

Many of them have been filed in swing states considered pivotal for either candidate to win the presidency.

In Pennsylvania, the RNC had appealed a lower court decision that allowed voters who mistakenly sent their mail-in ballots without an inner "secrecy" envelope to cast in-person provisional ballots at their local polling location.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld that decision in a 4-3 vote, siding with a lower court that had ruled that a local election board in Butler County had been wrong this year when they disqualified provisional ballots cast by several residents in the 2024 primary election. 

THE 1.6M VOTERS WHO COULD DETERMINE THE US ELECTION DON'T CURRENTLY RESIDE IN THE COUNTRY

Writing for the majority, Justice Christine Donohue said provisional ballots exist as a "failsafe" for eligible voters in Pennsylvania to protect against disenfranchisement.