US elections: Supreme Court judge ordered to split some votes in Pennsylvania

U.S. Supreme Court Judge Samuel Alito ordered Pennsylvania County election officials to keep separate mail-in ballots that arrived after election day. The state’s top electoral official had already ordered that these ballots be separated.

The order came Friday night in response to a request from the state’s Republican Party as Democratic candidate Joe Biden led Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in the presidential race.

Alito, acting on his own, said he made the decision in part because of Republicans’ claim that they could not be sure election officials were following the guidelines issued by the Secretary of State for Pennsylvania, Kathy Boockvar, Democrat. .

The judge handles emergency appeals in Pennsylvania. He ordered a state response on Saturday afternoon and said he had referred the case to full court.

The order concerns a Republican appeal underway to the Supreme Court to try to prevent the counting of ballots received in the mail after polling day. The state’s highest court granted a three-day extension and the Supreme Court refused to block it.

Nevada

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s lead over President Donald Trump edged up to 22,657 votes in key Nevada state.

Friday afternoon’s result was due to ballots sent out by Democratic-dominated Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of the state’s population.

The former vice president racked up 632,558 votes, compared to Trump’s 609,901. Gloria County also has 60,000 additional provisional ballots which will be processed later.