PENNSYLVANIA — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania as presidential campaigns vie for the final days before the election in the largest State of the country.

The justices left in place a state Supreme Court ruling that said elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose absentee ballots were rejected.

The ruling is a victory for voting rights advocates, who sought to force counties — primarily those controlled by Republicans — to allow voters to cast provisional ballots on Election Day if they realized their absentee ballots was going to be rejected for various reasons. garden variety mistakes.

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On Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned arrived at Pennsylvania election offices without a secrecy envelope, signature or date, according to state records.

Pennsylvania is the biggest presidential battleground this year, with 19 electoral votes, and is expected to play an outsized role in the election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

This was decided by tens of thousands of votes in 2016 when Trump won and again in 2020 when Democrat Joe Biden won.

The decision comes as voters had their last chance Friday to request an absentee ballot in a suburban Philadelphia county, while a clear county across the state gave voters who did not receive their ballots vote by mail another chance to get one.

A judge in Erie County in northwestern Pennsylvania ruled Friday in a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party that about 15,000 people who had requested an absentee ballot but who had not received it could go to the county elections office and get a replacement until Monday. .

The deadline to request an absentee ballot has passed in Pennsylvania. But the judge’s ruling means the Erie County elections office will be open every day through Monday for voters to walk in, cancel the absentee ballot they didn’t receive in the mail and get another one at the counter.

In Bucks County, a suburb of Philadelphia, a court set a 5 p.m. deadline for voters to request and receive an absentee ballot.

Lines outside the county elections office in Doylestown were long all day – snaking down the sidewalk – with the process taking about two hours Friday afternoon.

Nakesha McGuirk, 44, a Democrat from Bensalem, assessed the line and said, “I didn’t expect the line to be this long. But I’m going to stick it out.”

She faces a long work commute next week and worries about her ability to make it to the polls on Election Day. “I thought rather than take the risk of not getting home in time to vote, it would be better to do it this way sooner,” said McGuirk, a Harris supporter.

Republican voter Patrick Lonieski, a Trump supporter from Buckingham, also found it more convenient, given his work schedule, to vote Friday in a county he called a “pivotal” for the outcome.

“I just want to make sure my ballot is counted,” said Lonieski, 62, accompanied by his 18-year-old son who was voting for the first time.

The queue gradually diminished as 5 p.m. approached. A final latecomer raced to meet the deadline as poll workers happily counted down the seconds. “Let’s go! Hurry up! You can do it!” » shouted a passerby. People cheered as she walked through the door – just in time.

A Bucks County judge had ordered a three-day extension in response to a Trump campaign lawsuit alleging that voters were disenfranchised when they were turned away by county processing offices that had struggling to meet demand, causing frustration and anger among voters. .