U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an order Friday night ordering Pennsylvania counties to segregate all ballots arriving after Election Day.

Pennsylvania Republicans filed an appeal to the high court asking for the ballots arriving after Election Day to be kept separate. Citing delays in mail delivery, state officials have planned to count all ballots arriving by 5 p.m. Friday. And state officials said those ballots are being counted separately.

Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said last week she was directing counties to count those late-arriving ballots separately. The GOP said in the appeal it’s unclear if counties are doing that. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said on Twitter the state “has already been doing that.”

Alito has asked state officials and Democrats to respond by 2 p.m. Saturday. But Alito’s order does not direct officials to stop counting those late ballots.

GOPUSA Editor’s Note: This particular order follows a previous tied decision of the US Supreme Court issued before the election. There is a petition on the merits of the case still pending before the Supreme Court. See Story: Supreme Court Allows Pennsylvania, North Carolina To Accept Mail Ballots After Nov. 3

State officials have yet to say how many ballots arrived after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Boockvar has said it’s looking to be less than expected and will be well below the 60,000 ballots that arrived in the three days after the June primary.

The Supreme Court has previously denied appeals to stop the counting of those late-arriving ballots. Republicans filed a new appeal after U.S. Supreme Court Amy Coney Barrett joined the court. President Donald Trump has assailed the integrity of those ballots coming after Election Day, and mail-in ballots in general.

Joe Biden leads Trump in Pennsylvania by 19,491 votes, although tens of thousands of votes remain to be counted. If Biden wins Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, he’d have enough electoral votes to win the White House.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said on Twitter Alito’s order “represents no change in the counting of the vote in Pennsylvania.”

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