HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top election official said Thursday that mail-in ballots received by counties in the presidential battleground state within three days after polls close will count, although she also cautioned that more litigation could change that.
Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar also said, however, that those late-arriving ballots will be counted separately, for the sake of “effective and clear election administration in Pennsylvania.”
Boockvar had told counties on Wednesday to set those ballots aside and not count them. That was hours before the U.S. Supreme Court turned away a Republican Party bid to block a state court order granting the extended deadline for mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
“Under the current status of things, they will be counted, but I don’t know, I’m not going to game out what could happen if another filing changes things,” Boockvar, a Democrat, said.
Gov. Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, said the uncertainty adds to the need for everyone to get their ballots in before polls close at 8 p.m. on this Tuesday, Election Day.
President Donald Trump — who is aligned with the Republican Party’s opposition to the state court’s deadline extension — tweeted Thursday that the extension “is a disaster.”
Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are hotly contesting Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes.
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