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Source: Reuters
The sun rises behind the U.S. Supreme Court building the day
after Election Day in Washington
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr poses during group
portrait at Supreme Court in Washington
The order came in a case pending before the justices to
invalidate a September decision by the state's highest court
that allowed election officials to count mail-in ballots
postmarked by Tuesday's Election Day that are delivered through
Friday. Alito granted the request by Pennsylvania Republicans to
separate the ballots without first referring the request to the
other justices.
The decision comes as Democrat Joe Biden edged closer to winning
the White House on Friday, expanding his narrow leads over
President Donald Trump in battleground states including
Pennsylvania.
The Supreme Court had twice rebuffed Pennsylvania Republicans in
the case, rejecting a request in October to block the lower
court ruling and later refusing to fast-track their
consideration of an appeal. The justices said they might revisit
the case after Nov. 3.
In its request on Friday, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania
said it was unclear whether all 67 county election boards were
complying with Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar's
Oct. 28 directive to separate late-arriving ballots.
Late-arriving ballots are a tiny proportion of the overall vote
in the state, Boockvar has said.
The request said 25 counties had not indicated whether they were
separating the disputed ballots, which would be necessary in
case the Supreme Court ultimately agrees to hear the case and
overturns the deadline extension.
The Trump campaign has sought to intervene in the case, but the
justices have not yet acted on that request.
Also on Friday, a federal judge in Nevada rejected a bid by a
voter, a member of the media and two candidate campaigns to
block the use of a signature-verification system in populous
Clark County and to provide "meaningful" public access to vote
counting.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Noeleen Walder and
William Mallard)
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