The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ordered election officials in the state to stop counting mail-in ballots marked with the wrong date or missing dates on the outer envelope.
The court order specifies that Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, where Republicans allege officials chose to count mail-in ballots with errors on the outer envelope, must abide by the Supreme Court’s previous rulings, which said undated or misdated mail-in ballots should not be counted.
The directive is a courtroom victory for Republican Dave McCormick, who holds a narrow lead over Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in a razor-thin Senate race headed to a recount this week.
Elizabeth Gregory, a spokesperson for McCormick’s campaign, called the ruling “a huge setback to Casey’s effort to count illegal ballots” in a post on X, adding that McCormick “looks forward to taking the oath of office in January .”
Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s campaign manager, characterized the lawsuit in a statement Monday as part of an effort by McCormick and other Republicans to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.
“David McCormick and national Republicans are working to throw out provisional ballots cast by eligible voters in Pennsylvania and accepted by county boards. It is wrong and we will fight it,” Donohue said.
McCormick declared victory on Friday after The Associated Press projected him as the winner. NBC News has not yet predicted a winner in the race, which is still too close to call. McCormick leads Casey by 17,408 votes, with 99.7% of the vote in and 24,000 ballots left to count.
Pennsylvania’s rules trigger a recount of ballots when the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. The recount, which begins this week, must be completed by noon on November 26.
The Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania had filed a petition seeking an injunction singling out election boards led by Democrats in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties who had previously voted to tabulate ballots without correct dates.
The counties had decided to count those ballots, reasoning that an incorrect date did not indicate a voter was ineligible, nor did it suggest the vote was illegal.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
