The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for counties to help voters fix errors like missing signatures on mail ballots before Election Day.
A lower court last month denied an attempt to block counties from helping voters “cure” their ballot errors. The state Supreme Court on Friday said it had deadlocked on the appeal of that decision, which means the lower court decision is automatically affirmed.
The high court normally has seven members, but Chief Justice Max Baer died last month. Of the remaining six members, Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht said they agreed with the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court’s decision that allowed ballot curing to continue. Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justices Sallie Updyke Mundy and Kevin Brobson said they would have reversed it.
The three-sentence order dealt a defeat to the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups, which had filed the appeal in one of the latest fronts in the state’s contentious partisan battle over which ballots should be counted.