Supreme Court allows mail-in extensions in PA, NC

Supreme Court allows mail-in extensions in PA, NC

U.S. Supreme Court extended mail-in voting deadlines in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, a setback for the Trump campaign.

Bryan Wood reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt blows to Republicans Wednesday, allowing mail-in ballot extensions in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Both states are pivotal to President Donald Trump's re-election chances, particularly Pennsylvania where Trump won in 2016 but is now trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden in several opinion polls.

The conservative-majority court rejected the Pennsylvania Republican Party's request to block the state's deadline extension for receiving mail-in ballots.

The action leaves in place a lower court's ruling, which will allow mail-in ballots there to be counted as long as they are received up to three days after the November 3 election.

The Supreme Court also rejected the Trump campaign's request to block North Carolina's mail-in ballot extension, which allows votes to be counted up to nine days after Nov.

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Trump's latest Supreme Court appointee Amy Coney Barrett did not participate in either case.

According to a court spokeswoman, she did not have enough time to review the case filings.

The Pennsylvania and North Carolina disputes are among a number of election-related lawsuits across the country.

Trump has made unfounded claims that voting by mail leads to fraud, something experts say is exceptionally rare, but many states have expanded mail-in voting this year due to the health crisis, with voters wary of crowded polling places.