GOP sues to block voters in key battleground state from fixing ballot errors: report

Republicans are suing in Pennsylvania to try to ensure voters have no way of counting their mail-in ballot if it includes minor technical errors, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Furthermore, this suit, filed by the Republican National Committee against the Pennsylvania secretary of state and all 67 counties in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, would also deny voters who have errors on their mail ballots the right to cast a provisional ballot.

"The lawsuit argues that state law prohibits election officials from notifying voters of such errors and allowing them to be fixed in time to have their ballot counted, a process known as curing," wrote Maggie Astor and Neil Vigdor.

Roughly half of states have some form of curing process for technical errors on ballots, like missing or mismatched signatures.

However, "The new lawsuit notes that different counties in Pennsylvania have adopted different procedures for curing, and it argues that this violates a requirement in the state constitution that election processes be 'uniform'" — and that the legislature would have to adopt a curing process for it to be legal.

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A spokesman for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said his administration supports allowing voters to "rectify technical deficiencies" to ensure their vote counts.

"We will continue to fight for every eligible citizen’s right to vote and have their voice heard," the spokesman said.

Pennsylvania is widely considered to be one of the most crucial battlegrounds in the 2024 election, with the winner of the state being favored to win the Electoral College. Former President Donald Trump has long attacked the process of voting by mail, which was once used relatively equally by both parties but has gradually become more favored by Democrats as Trump claimed baselessly that it was a scheme to rig the vote.

Trump has also demanded the RNC and its newly-selected leadership team focus on election litigation and poll monitoring.