Supreme Court allows Pennsylvania to count contested provisional ballots in blow for Republicans | 1 Nov 2024 | The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in the battleground state. The justices left in place a state Supreme Court ruling that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected. As of Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned have arrived at elections offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a date, according to state records. The case dealt in part with "naked ballots," those without a security sleeve that gets included in mail ballots but which some voters may neglect to use. The Republican National Committee said it could impact "tens of thousands of votes in a state which many anticipate could be decisive."