COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is getting involved in the high-stakes fight over absentee ballots in Pennsylvania, among the states that Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to have won on his path to winning the presidential election.
Yost, a Republican, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling from Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court that ordered elections officials there to continue accepting absentee ballots that arrived within three days following Election Day.
In a Monday “friend of the court” filing, state attorneys said U.S. Supreme Court justices should overturn the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision, arguing “state legislatures, not state courts, set the rules for picking presidential electors.” At least, the filing says, the U.S. Supreme Court should weigh in on whether the Pennsylvania court’s ruling was proper.
“The States need an answer to that question, which is certain to arise again in future elections. And it is important to provide that answer now because, without a ruling from this Court, doubts will continue to linger about whether the vote count in Pennsylvania was performed in conformity with the Constitution,” reads the filing, signed by Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers and Chief Deputy Solicitor General Michael Hendershot.
Monday’s brief from Yost’s office was in support of Pennsylvania Republican leaders and state lawmakers, who at the behest of President Donald Trump’s campaign have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the post-Election Day ballots. Under Pennsylvania law, absentee ballots must be received by Election Day in order to count. But the state’s Supreme Court extended that deadline by three days, citing the coronavirus pandemic, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3.
A group of Republican attorneys general in other states, including Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma, have said they are filing a separate “friend of the court” brief in the Pennsylvania case.