The United States Supreme Court has ordered Pennsylvania election boards to separate the count of mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day.
The order, which was signed by Justice Samuel Alito, suggests that the justices may exclude the late-arriving ballots in a subsequent ruling involving the results of the presidential election.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump was leading Joe Biden by hundreds of thousands of votes in Pennsylvania. But on Thursday, the president’s lead dwindled to less than 50,000 as ballots continued to be counted.
The Trump campaign and other Republicans have since filed several lawsuits related to the ballots, questioning the validity of deadlines.
The Pennsylvania Republican Party had requested an emergency order from the Supreme Court after it was unable to get at least 25 of the county boards to confirm they were placing the ballots in a secure, sealed container and that they have been counting them separately.
Justice Alito agreed, signing his order on Friday.
While the presidential election remains uncalled in several states, it is apparent that Pennsylvania is likely to be one of the key swing states — which carries 20 Electoral College votes — giving President Trump a path to reelection.
Meanwhile, apparent discrepancies involving the 2020 election have appeared in other key states, such as in Michigan, where an entire county was flipped from Biden to Trump after a computer software “glitch” was fixed.
As for Georgia, the election “remains too close to call,” and “there will be a recount,” according to the state’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger.
Regarding Arizona, many believe the state was called too soon for Biden and that President Trump may be the state’s winner after all of the legal votes are counted.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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