Supreme Court won't block counting of certain provisional ballots in battleground Pennsylvania

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday declined to freeze a decision from Pennsylvania's highest court that required election officials to count provisional ballots cast by people whose mail ballots are invalid because they lacked mandatory secrecy envelopes.

The order from the justices means that election officials in the key battleground state must tally provisional ballots submitted on Election Day by voters who returned defective mail ballots, either because they didn't include secrecy envelopes or failed to sign or date the outer envelope.

It's unclear how many provisional ballots will be counted as a result of the Supreme Court's order. In many counties, voters are notified when their mail ballot is likely disqualified and have the chance to request a new ballot or go to their polling places on Election Day to cast provisional ballots.