The U.S. Supreme Court has declined for now to wade into the debate over whether undated mail ballots should be counted in Pennsylvania elections, a fight that could decide whether thousands of votes are accepted in future elections that would otherwise have been thrown out.

The justices on Thursday lifted a temporary stay that had prevented hundreds of them from being counted in a contested 2021 judicial race in Lehigh County, in line with a lower court ruling last month. But, in doing so, three of the court’s nine justices signaled they were eager to hear the wider case on appeal, acknowledging the confusion it has unleashed among elections officials in Pennsylvania over whether those votes should be counted in other races.

That uncertainty most recently became a flashpoint in the tight GOP primary for U.S. Senate between Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, spawning a separate state lawsuit on whether more than 800 undated Republican mail ballots should be counted in their race.

>>>>

The case centered on 257 undated mail ballots received in the 2021 judicial race pitting Democrat Zachary Cohen against Republican David Ritter. Cohen finished 74 votes behind Ritter. The undated ballots could tip the balance, though they have never been opened and counted.

>>>>

“Zac and I have been fighting since November of last year because we knew that these voters deserve to be heard,” said Cohen’s attorney, Adam Bonin, who argued the case alongside lawyers for the ACLU who represented voters whose ballots were in danger of being rejected.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer