PHILADELPHIA — As Joe Biden's lead over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania grew Friday afternoon, state Republicans returned to the U.S. Supreme Court urging it overturn the state's three-day grace period for late-arriving mail ballots and order, in the meantime, that none of those votes be added to the count.
The justices had declined an earlier push seeking their intervention before Election Day, but noted at the time that they might be open to considering the issue down the road.
The extension was authorized by Pennsylvania's highest court in mid-September in a ruling that allowed counties to count ballots received up until 5 p.m. EST Friday — as long as they had been postmarked by Election Day.
Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has advised counties to segregate — but still count — any mail ballots that came in after Nov. 3 so that if the U.S. Supreme Court were to take up the case they could be easily isolated.
But in its filing Friday, the Pennsylvania GOP argued it was unclear whether counties were following Boockvar's instructions and insisted the ballots shouldn't be added to any tally until the Supreme Court determined their validity.
"Given the results of the Nov. 3, 2020 general election, the vote in Pennsylvania may well determine the next President of the United States — and it is currently unclear whether all 67 county boards of elections are segregating late-arriving ballots," the party's lawyers wrote.
Trump has also urged the justices to intervene in the case — part of an overall bombardment of legal action seeking to cast doubt on the integrity of Pennsylvania's vote.
But even if the Supreme Court were to take up the case, overturn the extended deadline and order votes that arrived between Election Day and Friday thrown out, the number of late-arriving votes has not been overwhelming so far.
Statewide, "it's not a huge number," Boockvar told CNN on Thursday, noting that some smaller counties had received none. Even in the state's largest counties, she said, the numbers hovered at around 500 at most as of midday Thursday.
"Unless it's super close, I don't see this making or breaking this one way or the other," Boockvar said. "But in the meantime, we're going to be counting every ballot."
