HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's highest court on Wednesday said people whose mail ballots are rejected for not following technical procedures in state law can cast provisional ballots, a decision sure to affect some of the thousands of mail-in votes likely to be rejected this fall.
The Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Butler County's Republican-majority election board must count provisional ballots that were cast by two voters after they learned their mail-in ballots were voided because they arrived without mandatory secrecy envelopes.
The decision was a legal defeat for the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party, which had argued Butler County had correctly rejected the provisional ballots cast during the April primary.
Secrecy envelopes keep ballots concealed as elections workers open the stamped outer envelopes used to mail the whole packets back. Voters also must sign and date the exterior envelopes. Pennsylvania voters have so far applied for more than 1.9 million mail ballots.
The two voters had received emails notifying them of the “naked ballot” problem, and they both went to their polling places on the primary election day and cast provisional ballots. They sued after learning the Butler County Board of Elections also rejected their provisional ballots, and a county judge upheld the election officials’ decisions.
Mail-in ballot rules in Pennsylvania changed drastically under a 2019 law, widely expanding their use and producing a series of lawsuits. Pennsylvania’s status as the swing state with the most electoral votes in the close presidential election, now in its final two weeks, puts the court decision under heightened scrutiny as the parties scrape for votes.
Most counties — but not all — help inform voters in advance of Election Day that their mail-in ballot will be rejected, giving them the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot at their polling place, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
“The General Assembly wrote the Election Code with the purpose of enabling citizens to exercise their right to vote, not for the purpose of creating obstacles to voting,” wrote Justice Christine Donohue for the majority.
In a dissent joined by the other Republican on the court and one of the five Democratic justices, Justice Kevin Brobson argued the two voters had already cast their ballots by mail, so the provisional ballots they also cast should not be counted.
He said voters have to follow election laws, whether that means using the secrecy envelope or showing up at the polls during the time they are open. State lawmakers could have told election boards to count provisional ballots under such circumstances, Brobson wrote.
“The General Assembly, however, clearly did not, and this Court is not at liberty to make additions or modifications to the unambiguous statutory language in order to effectuate that result,” Brobson said.
An ACLU lawyer involved in the case, Witold Walczak, said Wednesday the decision applies across the state, that all voters whose mail-in ballots are disqualified for any reason will be allowed to cast valid provisional ballots.
“In the end, this is about not two votes counting or zero votes counting, it’s about one vote counting,” Walczak said. “If your first vote does not count, as with these disqualified mail ballots, the provisional ballot must count. You’re entitled to have one vote counted.”
Walczak expects the number of disqualified mail-in ballots to be in the tens of thousands in this year’s election.
FILE - This is an official Pennsylvania mail-in ballot in Pittsburgh, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli jets struck multiple buildings in Lebanon's southern coastal city of Tyre on Wednesday, sending up large clouds of black smoke, while Hezbollah confirmed that a top official widely expected to be the militant group's next leader had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike on the nearby town of Maarakeh killed three people. There were no reports of casualties in Tyre, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings prior to the strikes.
Hezbollah meanwhile fired more rockets into Israel, including two that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv before being intercepted. A cloud of smoke could be seen in the sky from the hotel where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was staying on his latest visit to the region to try to renew cease-fire talks.
On Wednesday night, the Israeli military said another four “projectiles” crossed from Lebanon into Israel, with two intercepted and one falling in open land. There were no immediate reports of injuries, the military said.
Hezbollah confirmed that top official Hashem Safieddine had been killed in an announcement one day after Israel said it had killed him in a strike earlier this month in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, had been expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.
Hezbollah said Safieddine had “joined his brother, our most noble and precious martyr,” Nasrallah.
The militant group began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes, after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack from Gaza triggered the war there. All-out war erupted in Lebanon last month, and Israeli strikes killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.
Tyre, a provincial capital, had largely been spared, but strikes in and around the city have intensified recently.
The 2,500-year-old city, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Beirut, is known for its pristine beaches, ancient harbor and imposing Roman ruins and hippodrome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is among Lebanon’s largest cities and a vibrant metropolis popular with tourists.
The buildings struck Wednesday were between several heritage sites, including the hippodrome and a cluster of seaside sites associated with the ancient Phoenicians and the Crusaders.
The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings a couple of hours before the strikes for dozens of buildings in the heart of the city. It told residents to move north of the Awali River, dozens of kilometers (miles) to the north.
Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, said on the platform X there were Hezbollah assets in the area, without elaborating or providing evidence.
The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has a strong presence in the city, and its legislators are members of the group or its allies. But Tyre is also home to civilians with no ties to the group, including a sizable Christian community.
Civil Defense first responders warned residents through loudspeakers to evacuate and helped older adults and others who had difficulty leaving. Ali Safieddine, the head of the Civil Defense, told The Associated Press there were no casualties.
Dr. Wissam Ghazal, a health official in Tyre, said the strikes hit six buildings, flattening four of them, around 2 1/2 hours after the evacuation warnings. People displaced by the strikes could be seen in parks and sitting on the sides of nearby roads.
The head of Tyre's disaster management unit, Mortada Mhanna, told the AP that although many had fled, thousands of residents and others displaced from other areas remain. Many people, including hundreds of families, previously had fled villages in South Lebanon to seek refuge in shelters in Tyre.
An estimated 15,000 people remain in the city out of a pre-war population of about 100,000, Mhanna said.
On Wednesday night the pan-Arab TV channel Al-Mayadeen, which is politically allied with Hezbollah, said the Israeli military struck its office building on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs.
“Al-Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet,” the TV station said. It added that the office had been evacuated. The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike.
On Nov. 21, an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed two Al-Mayadeen journalists reporting on military activity along the border with Israel.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said 28 people were killed and 139 wounded over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll since the conflict began last year to 2,574, with 12,001 people wounded. The fighting has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the U.N. children’s agency.
On Wednesday, rescuers recovered the bodies of a mother and her 7-year-old child two days after an Israeli airstrike on Monday hit a densely populated slum near Beirut’s main public hospital, Saad al-Ahmar, the commander of the Civil Defense’s southern district fire and rescue unit, told The Associated Press.
Monday's strike killed at least 18 people, including four children, and wounded over 60 others, the Health Ministry said. It also damaged the nearby Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut’s primary public medical facility.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah site, without providing further details, and stated the hospital itself was not the intended target.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah attacks have killed around 60 people, half of them soldiers. Near-daily rocket barrages have emptied communities across northern Israel, displacing some 60,000 people. In recent weeks Hezbollah has extended its range, launching scores of rockets daily and regularly targeting the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Most are intercepted or fall in open areas.
In Gaza, the Israeli military has pressed ahead with a major operation in the northern part of the territory, where the United Nations’ humanitarian office has said Israel has severely restricted aid deliveries. During his visit to the region, Blinken reiterated a warning that hindering aid could force the U.S. to scale back crucial military support for Israel.
Israel’s army said it had arrested about 150 suspected Palestinian militants, while about 20,000 people left Jabaliya, a refugee camp that has turned into a densely built neighborhood over the decades. The military released drone footage showing thousands of people walking past bombed buildings. Over the past few days, several Palestinians said the Israeli military forced them to leave.
The U.N. estimates 60,000 people have fled the far north of Gaza southwards over more than a two-week period.
A Palestinian resident of Beit Lahiya, near Jabaliya, told the AP that Israel’s military has rounded up hundreds of men in northern Gaza, separating them as families try to flee the area.
Hisham Abu Zaqout, a father of four, said he was held for at least three hours along with dozens of men in a school near a hospital.
The Israeli army says it is trying to uproot Hamas militants from Jabaliya, as well other parts of northern Gaza, issuing mass evacuation orders there earlier this month. Jabaliya has been the scene of on-and-off fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants for months, leaving parts of it destroyed.
Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Flame and smokes rise from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut,, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Flame and smoke rise from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Flame and smoke rise from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine attends a funeral in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People observe buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah supporters stand on the rubble of a destroyed building hit by Israeli airstrikes, as they hold an Arabic banner that reads: "Despite the displacement we will be victorious", in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A man searches through the rubble of a destroyed building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A woman looks on through her hair salon which was destroyed after Israeli airstrikes hit several buildings in Tyre, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Flame and smoke rises from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Projectiles fired from Lebanon are intercepted over Haifa, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Projectiles fired from Lebanon are intercepted over Haifa, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
