Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito ordered counties in Pennsylvania to comply with a directive from the state to segregate ballots that arrived after 8 p.m. on election day to ensure they’re not counted with ballots that arrived on time:
BREAKING FROM SCOTUS: Justice Alito has issued an Order than any ballots received after after 8pm on election day in PA be segregated and secured – and if counted, counted separately. There is a petition pending before SCOTUS. Alito orders opposing side to reply by 2p Saturday.
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) November 7, 2020
Apparently, it wasn’t clear that the counties were actually doing this:
Alito order: "… neither the applicant (PA GOP) nor the Secretary has been able to verify that all boards are complying with the Secretary's guidance, which, it is alleged, is not legally binding on them."
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) November 7, 2020
The segregation was supposed to be happening and this just gives the weight of a SCOTUS order to make sure it’s being enforced:
Many of you have rightly noted that this segregating/securing was already supposed to be happening. PA GOP told SCOTUS today neither it nor the PA Sec of Commonwealth could get all the county boards of election to confirm they were actually complying. Now there's a SCOTUS Order.
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) November 7, 2020
This decision “preserves the status quo,” according to election lawyer Ben Ginsberg and is not necessarily “huge for @realDonaldTrump” as Sean Spicer suggests:
Ben Ginsberg, one of the best election law lawyers: "What Justice Alito's order does preserves the status quo" to CNN just now. https://t.co/GfJyZ8oqpI
— Demetri Sevastopulo (@Dimi) November 7, 2020
We still don’t know how many late-arriving ballots were not segregated or if there are enough of these ballots to change the course of the election:
Locking barn after horse is out. I discussed w/ @BretBaier @marthamaccallum @ShannonBream and @JonathanTurley: just b/c PA *promised* to segregate late-arriving ballots, didn’t guarantee they would so. Now, Justice Alito has ordered them to do it … but have they been doing so?
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) November 7, 2020
Republicans had wanted Justice Alito to stop the count:
Alito did not direct PA election officials to stop counting the ballots, as the Republicans had also sought. https://t.co/BzcFZ2Ihcz
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) November 7, 2020
But that didn’t happen:
BREAKING: Justice Alito temporarily grants Pennsylvania GOP request to enforce segregation of late ballots — BUT note; he doesn't stop the count. Saturday will be busy…https://t.co/5snGpFzGHV
— Christine Spolar (@christinespolar) November 7, 2020
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