Topline
Pennsylvania Republicans are all over again asking the U.S. Supreme Court docket to step in and withhold the assert from counting mail-in ballots bought after Election Day, in what shall be a well-known case in figuring out the discontinuance result of the 2020 presidential election, with Mediate Amy Coney Barrett most likely enjoying an well-known characteristic in what shall be her first vote as a Supreme Court docket justice.
Supreme Court docket nominee Mediate Amy Coney Barrett poses for a report on Capitol Hill on Oct. 21, 2020 in … [+] Washington. (Photo by Leigh Vogel-Pool/Getty Pictures)
Key Info
Pennsylvania election officers are planning to depend mail-in ballots it receives up unless the Friday after Election Day as long as the ballots are postmarked by Election Day itself, Nov. 3.
Republicans challenged the assert’s capacity to depend those ballots, soliciting for an emergency stick with the Supreme Court docket final week that could perchance have kept the assert from doing so.
The court docket didn’t set up the defend in assert, following a 4-4 tie after Chief Justice John Roberts broke with the a great deal of 4 conservative justices on the court docket.
Barrett shall be the deciding, tie-breaking vote if the a great deal of justices vote the identical formulation.
What To Expect For
Barrett, who is expected to be a solidly conservative justice, is in general confirmed to the Supreme Court docket this week. Her confirmation looks especially determined after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced Saturday she shall be balloting “slither” on Barrett’s confirmation. Murkowski become once the handiest Republican to vote against President Donald Trump’s outdated Supreme Court docket nominee, now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Key Background
Pennsylvania is viewed as a well-known swing assert in the presidential election, with 20 electoral votes. It become once also one of many states with the thinnest margins in 2016. Trump carried Pennsylvania by no longer up to 1 percentage level over Democrat Hillary Clinton, successful by below 45,000 votes. Polling exhibits Trump trailing 2020 Democratic challenger Joe Biden, though, with Trump facing a polling deficit in swing states all around the country.
Huge Quantity
2,944,187. That’s what number of mail-in ballots Pennsylvanians have requested for the election, in response to the United States Elections Challenge.
Tangent
In a separate case Friday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket sided against Republicans by ruling that mail-in ballots can not be rejected because a voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file. And in one other blow Friday, the Commonwealth Court docket of Pennsylvania also ruled that poll watchers gained’t be allowed at satellite elections offices to seem mail-in ballots—one other strike against GOP efforts to limit mail-in balloting.
Additional Reading
Lisa Murkowski broadcasts toughen for Amy Coney Barrett all over rare Saturday Senate session (Fox News)
Supreme Court docket Principles Pennsylvania Can Depend Ballots Obtained After Election Day (NPR)
