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The US Supreme Court has ordered election officials in Pennsylvania to temporarily separate mail-in ballots that arrived later after Tuesday’s election from the other votes.
The court said mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day, but before 5pm on Friday, must be kept separate.
Although such votes are accepted under the election guidelines of Pennsylvania, they have been repeatedly challenged by President Donald Trump and his Republican Party in the state.
The apex court had before the election, declined an earlier prayer by the Republicans to hear the matter but Justice Samuel Alito issued the order on Friday following a post-Election Day request from the ruling party.
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Before Justice Alito gave the order, however, the state’s Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar had already told election officials to count those ballots but keep them separate from other ballots, according to Al Jazeera.
This means that if the Supreme Court later rules on the case, those votes could be invalidated.
But Alito also ordered electoral officials to continue the counting of votes, rejecting demands by Donald Trump’s party to stop the count.
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