As I understand it, the Pennsylvania official in charge of running the election issued an order, based on the pandemic and problems with the Post Office, permitting the counting of votes that are postmarked, but not received, by November 3. Local GOP luminaries sued in state court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court applied state law and upheld the order. The US Supreme Court subsequently considered the issue and deadlocked 4-4 on staying the Pennsylvania court’s order, with Roberts joining the three liberals. The order consequently remains in place, at least for now.
This sounds positive, but it isn’t. The Supreme Court did not issue an opinion on the matter, so we don’t know what the reasoning of the majority and the minority was, but we do know that one of the appellants’ arguments was that vote counting has to stop on the day of the election as a matter of federal law. In other words, all of us have a constitutional right to vote, but not to have that vote counted, even if it was cast in complete accordance with the law. Barrett will be on the Court on November 4. If Biden doesn’t win a clear victory on November 3, therefore, it is now certain that we will have the toxic cocktail of Trump “orders” to stop the counts, litigation in state courts, multiple Brooks Brothers riots, and an ultimate decision by a Supreme Court beholden to the man on golf cart.