The Supreme Court has rejected hearing the Republican National Committee’s challenge to Pennsylvania’s policy on provisional ballots.

The decision leaves in place a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that says a voter can cast a provisional ballot on Election Day despite having sent a mail-in ballot on time.

Pennsylvania allows a provisional ballot to be used if there is a defect on the mail-in ballot, such as a missing date, secrecy envelope or signature.

The RNC argued that state lawmakers had directed that provisional ballots should not be counted if a timely mail-in ballot was received. It said that allowing the state Supreme Court decision to stand could upend federal election laws.

“State courts would be left with ’free rein’ to usurp legislatures’ constitutional function and to rewrite federal election rules with impunity,” the RNC’s court filing read.

But voters, like Faith Genser, the named plaintiff in the case, said the state Supreme Court broke no new ground with its decision and counties were counting provisional ballots when mail-ins were defective.

“Most county boards of elections already counted unsuccessful mail-ballot voters’ provisional ballots as a matter of course. That practice is consistent with guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of State and the judgments of most lower state court decisions to have addressed the issue,” Ms. Genser’s filing read.

The case was Republican National Committee v. Faith Genser.

It would have taken four justices to vote in favor of hearing the dispute for oral arguments to have been scheduled.

According to 6 Action News, an ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, the ruling will affect the 2026 midterms by allowing voters to have their ballots counted one way or another.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.