Two county voters who won a court decision ordering Butler County to count the provisional ballots they cast in the April primary, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and the state are asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to deny the Republican Party’s petition to delay implementation of the order.

Faith Genser, of Zelienople, Frank Matis, of Center Township, and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party filed a joint brief Sunday asking the court to deny the Friday, Oct. 25, petition filed by the Republican National Committee, Republican Party of Pennsylvania and the Butler County Bureau of Elections to stay the Oct. 23 order that requires the county to count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in or absentee ballots were rejected because they were not placed in the provided security envelopes.

The county election bureau rejected mail-in ballots submitted by Genser and Matis for the April Democratic primary because they didn’t place their ballots in the secrecy envelopes before mailing them. Common Pleas Court denied their appeal, but they appealed that decision to Commonwealth Court, which ruled in their favor.

The Republicans appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, which issued a split decision on Oct. 23 in favor of Genser and Matis.

On Friday, the Republicans asked the court to stay the ruling while an appeal is filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state Democratic Party joined Genser and Matis in a brief filed Sunday, Oct. 27, asking the court to deny the stay, while the Pennsylvania Department of State and Secretary Al Schmidt filed a petition Sunday asking for permission to file a brief in opposition to the stay.

The brief by the Democrats, Genser and Matis argues that there is no federal question for the U.S. Supreme Court to answer. The state Supreme Court’s decision involved a routine exercise of judicial review to resolve a question of interpreting the state Election Code, according to the brief.

The state Supreme Court correctly concluded that because Genser and Matis submitted naked ballots, their mail ballots were void and therefore could not be considered ballots that trigger the prohibition on voting with provisional ballots, according to the brief.

Denying the stay would not cause irreparable injury, as the Republicans argued in their petition, because it would result in only adding two votes to the April primary vote total, would not change the outcome of any races, and the decision applies only to Butler County, according to the brief.

The stay sought by the Republicans would deprive Genser and Matis of having their votes counted, the brief claims.

In addition, the alternative solution offered by the Republicans to require all counties to segregate provisional ballots cast by mail-in voters in the Nov. 5 election would harm voters who made plans to use provisional ballots in the election and election offices that have already incorporated the ruling into their operational plans, according to the brief.

The state’s petition argues that a stay would prevent the county from counting the provisional ballots from Genser and Matis, and the Republican-proposed alternative would result in the county segregating the two ballots.

The state petition says the provisional ballot ruling applies only to Butler County, and the court lacks the jurisdiction to order all 67 counties to segregate provisional ballots cast by mail-in voters because the Butler County case is the only one before the court, according to the petition.