PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Supreme Court has pressed pause on the ongoing debate over whether to count undated mail ballots, issuing an emergency stay Tuesday while it decides whether to hear an appeal on the issue.
The two-sentence order — issued by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who oversees matters for the court arising from Pennsylvania — injected a new level of uncertainty in a dispute that has roiled the razor’s-edge Senate primary campaign between David McCormick and Mehmet Oz.
The order was filed without explanation for the justice’s decision just hours after a lengthy hearing before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on the McCormick campaign’s bid to have such ballots — which arrived on time but are missing the required handwritten date on the outer envelope — counted in his race.
