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MILWAUKEE — Vice President Kamala Harris is urging her supporters to vote with the clock ticking down toward Election Day.

“We’re going to get this done, but nobody can sit by the sidelines,” the Democratic presidential nominee emphasized as she campaigned in battleground Wisconsin. “You don’t want to look back on these four days and have any regrets about what you could have done.”

Harris and the Republican nominee, former President Trump, held dueling rallies Friday night a few miles apart in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city.

NOVEMBER SURPRISE: DISMAL JOBS REPORT HANDS TRUMP INSTANT AMMUNITION TO FIRE AT HARRIS

Hours earlier, while campaigning in Michigan, another crucial Great Lakes swing state, Trump told his supporters “nothing matters except what happens on Tuesday.”

“Just pretend that we’re one point down. We’re not. We’re up. But pretend that we’re one point down on Tuesday,” the former president stressed. He once again touted that he’s leading Harris, even though the latest polls continue to indicate it’s a toss-up.

VICE PRESIDENT KEEPS HER DISTANCE FROM BIDEN IN FINAL STRETCH TO ELECTION DAY

With time running out, the campaign strategy now shifts.

“The closing arguments have been made. It’s not really about persuasion now. It’s about turnout. And that’s where all the energy of the campaigns are going to be directed,” longtime Republican strategist David Kochel told Fox News.

Kochel, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns, said, “At this point, people’s minds are made up. There are very few people out there to convince at this point. And if they’re deciding, they’re deciding between voting or sitting on the couch.”

Harris and Trump on Thursday each held their final events in the western battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada, and Friday’s competing rallies were their last stops in Wisconsin ahead of Election Day.

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The razor-thin margins in those three states, along with Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, decided President Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump and will likely determine if Harris or Trump wins the 2024 election.

This weekend, both nominees will keep up the brisk pace.

Harris campaigns Saturday in Georgia and North Carolina and makes multiple stops in Michigan on Sunday. On Election Eve, she crisscrosses Pennsylvania, which, with 19 electoral votes up for grabs, is the biggest prize among the seven battlegrounds.

Trump campaigns this weekend in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. He also makes a detour on Saturday in Virginia, a one-time swing state that has leaned blue in presidential elections for two decades. The former president will hold a rally in the conservative southwestern section of the commonwealth.

The former president made a similar stop in another blue-leaning state, New Mexico, Thursday.

REPUBLICANS ARE RUNNING A ‘SUCCESSFUL’ EARLY VOTING CAMPAIGN IN BATTLEGROUND NORTH CAROLINA: NRCC CHAIR

On Monday, the day before the election, Trump will campaign in North Carolina and Pennsylvania before holding his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same city where he closed out his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

But it’s not just the standard-bearers on the trail. The running mates — Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee — are fanning out across the country, along with top surrogates.

Far from the spotlight, campaign staffers and volunteers are making their final rounds with door knocks, phone calls, texts and emails to make sure their supporters have already voted early or will cast a ballot on Election Day. 

In an election within the margins, it could make all the difference.

“It’s about getting people to the polls, getting absentee ballots returned, getting whatever remaining early vote there is left in the door and just leave nothing on the field,” Kochel emphasized.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump held competing rallies at the same Friday night, just a few miles apart in battleground Wisconsin’s largest city.

With just four days until Election Day, the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees made their final stops in Wisconsin, where nearly all the latest public opinion polls indicate a margin-of-error race between the two candidates.

“We got four days to get this thing done. Four days. No one can sit on the sidelines,” the vice president emphasized to her supporters. “For you who have not yet voted, no judgment, but please get to it when you can.”

NOVEMBER SURPRISE: DISMAL JOBS REPORT HANDS TRUMP INSTANT AMMUNITION TO FIRE AT HARRIS

The Harris campaign said that over 12,000 packed into the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center, in West Allis, just yards outside the Milwaukee city limits.

Trump, holding court at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum – the same arena where he accepted his party’s presidential nomination during the Republican National Convention in July – told his supporters “I want your damn vote.”

VICE PRESIDENT KEEPS HER DISTANCE FROM BIDEN IN FINAL STRETCH TO ELECTION DAY

Speaking ahead of Harris at her rally was popular rapper and songwriter Cardi B, who told the crowd she hadn’t planned on voting in the presidential election until Harris replaced President Biden in July atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.

“I wasn’t going to vote this year. … But Kamala Harris joining the race, she changed my mind completely,” the entertainer said.

The rallies were Harris and Trump’s final appearances in Wisconsin ahead of Election Day – and it was the second time this week that the major party nominees held rallies on the same day in Wisconsin.

“As of this weekend, the way to predict the winner is to flip a coin. It’s that close,” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor emeritus Mordecai Lee told Fox News.

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The Democratic and Republican Parties’ vice presidential nominees — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, respectively — have also both crisscrossed Wisconsin, and major surrogates — including former Presidents Obama and Clinton for Harris — have parachuted into the Badger State. Obama returns on Sunday.

Both campaigns and their aligned committees and super PACs have also flooded Wisconsin airwaves with TV ads in the closing stretch leading up to Election Day next week.

Wisconsin, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, are the three Rust Belt states that make up the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall.”

Democrats reliably won all three states for a quarter-century before Trump narrowly captured them in the 2016 election over Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton to win the White House.

Four years later, in 2020, President Biden swept all three states by razor-thin margins to put them back in the Democrats’ column and defeat Trump. In Wisconsin, Biden carried the state by just over 20,000 votes out of more than 3.2 million cast.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former President Trump on Friday clarified that he meant former Rep. Liz Cheney doesn’t have the “guts” to fight on the front lines of war after he received a backlash from Democrats over comments he made Thursday about having guns trained on her. 

“All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself,” the Republican presidential nominee wrote on Truth Social. “It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!’ Her father decimated the Middle East, and other places, and got rich by doing so. He’s caused plenty of DEATH, and probably never even gave it a thought. That’s not what we want running our Country!”

Trump caused controversy when he called Cheney a “radical war hawk” at an event in Arizona on Thursday, adding, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face. They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops into the mouths of the enemies,’ but she’s a stupid person and I used to have meetings with a lot of people and she always wanted to go to war with people.” 

Trump also told reporters at a campaign stop in Dearborn, Michigan, on Friday: “Even in my administration, she was pushing that we go to war with everybody, and I said if you ever gave her a rifle and let her do the fighting, if you ever do that, she wouldn’t be doing too well, I will tell you right now. But she’s a war hawk. She wants to go kill people unnecessarily. 

HARRIS SAYS TRUMP’S RIFLE COMMENTS ABOUT LIZ CHENEY ARE ‘DISQUALIFYING’

The remarks prompted accusations from liberals of violent rhetoric and that Trump was suggesting Cheney should face a firing squad. 

“He has increased his violent rhetoric about political opponents – Donald Trump has – and in great detail suggested rifles should be trained on former Rep. Liz Cheney,” Vice President Harris told reporters in a presser Friday. “This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be President of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”

TRUMP CRITICISM OF LIZ CHENEY AS ‘RADICAL WAR HAWK’ FRAMED AS CALL FOR VIOLENCE BY ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ MEDIA

Cheney, a Republican, endorsed Harris for president in September and has been campaigning with the Democratic nominee. 

Cheney responded to Trump’s Thursday remarks on X Friday, writing, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.” 

She added the hashtags “#Womenwillnotbesilenced” and “#VoteKamala.”

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Republicans have also accused Democrats of increasing the possibility of violence against Trump with rhetoric accusing him of being “fascist” and a “threat to democracy.”

The former president was shot by a would-be assassin in July and was targeted by another suspect near his home in Florida. 

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has a long history of defending squatters’ rights and decrying foreclosure evictions during the 2008 recession, has filed eviction notices against multiple tenants of properties she owns.

One of those eviction petitions, filed in 2021 in Toledo municipal court, was against a tenant for “non-payment of rent,” and that same tenant faced another eviction from Kaptur in 2023 for failing to pay rent. 

That same tenant faced a possible eviction from Kaptur in 2024.

‘LEFT BEHIND’: VULNERABLE DEM INCUMBENT IN KEY SWING STATE SLAMMED FOR PUTTING ‘KNIFE IN BACK’ OF WORKERS

Kaptur, running for her 22nd term in Congress, also filed an eviction petition against another tenant in 2024 for a noise complaint, animal complaint and for an unauthorized person living on the property.

All of the eviction filings were eventually withdrawn by Kaptur. 

VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM UNDER FIRE FOR INTRODUCING ONLY 5 BILLS THAT BECAME LAW IN 41 YEARS: ‘HASN’T DONE SQUAT’

Kaptur’s eviction filings come with a backdrop of the congresswoman vocally speaking out against evictions during her time in Congress. 

During the COVID pandemic, Kaptur repeatedly pushed for the enactment and extension of eviction moratoriums to prevent landlords from removing tenants. In one letter Kaptur signed, she declared, “Keeping Americans affordably and stably housed during this pandemic is both a moral imperative and a public health necessity.”

Kaptur co-sponsored legislation, H.R. 6347, to establish an eviction moratorium until six months after the COVID-19 emergency declaration expired.

“Possession is 99% of the law; you stay in your house.” Kaptur said on the floor of the House of Representatives in 2009 after the 2008 housing crisis. “So, I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave.”

In 2017, Kaptur slammed Trump Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin for allegedly profiting from foreclosures and complained that “Mr. Mnuchin profited personally off of kicking people out of their homes.

“Does such a person actually deserve confirmation as secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America?” 

Kaptur told homeowners in 2009, “You should stay in your home. It is your castle. It’s more than a piece of property. It’s your home.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Kaptur’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

“This proves what we’ve been saying about Marcy Kaptur all along. She is a hypocrite who changes her language just because she’s in a tight election for the first time in her 41-year career,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital. 

“Marcy Kaptur should be ashamed of herself for profiting off kicking hardworking Ohioans out of their homes.”

Kaptur, serving her 21st term in Congress representing Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House. While the Cook Political Report ranks her race as “Lean Democrat,” redistricting following the 2020 census has Republicans believing they can flip the seat and ensure control of the House.

Kaptur is opposed by GOP Ohio State Rep. Derek Merrin.

The House Oversight Committee is applying pressure on the White House to release accurate transcripts, after they allegedly altered President Biden’s remarks after he called Trump supporters “garbage.”

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Oversight Chair James Comer, R-KY, sent a letter to the White House counsel’s office Friday demanding they preserve all documents related to the transcript.

“To date, the White House has not issued a corrected transcript, and the false transcript remains on the White House webpage,” they wrote.

THE FATAL FLAW IN KAMALA HARRIS’ SPEECH, MARRED BY BIDEN’S ‘GARBAGE’ COMMENT

The top members condemned the White House’s alteration of the official transcript, writing that the stenography office cannot “simply rewrite President Biden’s rhetoric.”

“In this case, it appears the White House is doing so to safeguard Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign,” they wrote.

WATCH:

Stefanik and Comer referred to an AP report, which cited an internal email from the head of the stenographer’s office, that noted that the press office “conferred with the president” to change the transcript.

The shocking comment came during Biden’s remarks to Latino activists regarding comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments at a Trump rally. Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters.”

The White House insisted that Biden was criticizing Hinchcliffe’s comments – and not the huge swath of Americans supporting a Trump presidency.

READ THE LETTER– APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

The letter from the GOP leaders shared their “concern with the latest reporting of the White House’s apparent political decision to protect the Biden-Harris Administration, instead of following longstanding and proper protocols.”

‘GARBAGE’ TRUMP SUPPORTERS? AMERICANS REACT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ‘OUT OF TOUCH’ COMMENTS

The transcript standard states that: “If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently. Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.”

Now, Stefanik and Comer are demanding that the White House:

Veterans and military families are falling in by the thousands to staff polling places across the country, according to a veterans’ coalition.

Vet the Vote coalition recently announced that after its recruitment efforts, 163,000 veterans and military families will work on Election Day to help facilitate the vote.

This number far exceeds the 63,500 veterans and military family members who were successfully recruited to work in polling places during the 2022 midterm elections, when the campaign was first launched.

MAJORITY OF VETERANS POLLED SUPPORT RE-ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: ‘WE WANT TRUMP BACK’

According to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), 917,694 poll workers worked during the 2016 election and a majority of jurisdictions polled reported that it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to obtain a sufficient number of poll workers.

“Vet the Vote is a national non-partisan, nonprofit campaign to recruit veterans and military family members to be the next generation of poll workers,” reads their mission statement.

The coalition represents 43 advocacy groups and other organizations. It has recently partnered with sponsors like NASCAR, the NFL and the NBA.

BRIAN MAST: I’M A WOUNDED WARRIOR. I’VE SEEN DONALD TRUMP CARE FOR VETERANS. THAT’S WHY I’M VOTING FOR HIM

“Our community makes for a good workforce” to take on the nuts and bolts of running one of the more than 132,000 polling stations expected to be recording votes next Tuesday, said Ellen Gustafson, a Navy spouse and co-founder of the Vet the Vote organization to Military.com.

According to Gustafson, the especially charged political environment going into next Tuesday has posed a challenge uniquely suited to veterans and military families.

“Yeah, we sure are hearing about threats. There are people questioning the integrity of our elections,” said Gustafson to Military.com, and “that includes questioning the integrity of the poll workers who do the work. I think we are comfortable with the idea that sometimes situations are challenging and the first goal is to de-escalate.”

Most poll workers sign up for long days, with most starting out at 5:30 am. Over half of poll workers in 2016 according to the EAC were aged 60 or over.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. 

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Vet the Vote did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Former President Donald Trump made a brief stop in the heavily Arab-American city of Dearborn, Michigan on Friday, in a continued effort to hold out an olive branch for the Islamic community in the battleground state.

Visiting The Great Commoner coffee shop in Dearborn, Trump cast himself as an alternative to President Biden’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon following the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7.

“We have to get this whole thing over with,” Trump said, speaking of the continuing conflict in the Middle East. “We want to have peace. We want to have peace on earth.”

TRUMP, HARRIS HEAD TO BATTLEGROUND STATES OF MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN

Trump spoke confidently of winning the swing state of Michigan, saying that his campaign “wants their votes.”

“We have a great feeling for Lebanon and I know so many people from Lebanon, Lebanese people and the Muslim population, they’re liking Trump, and they’ve had a good relationship with him,” he said. “This is it, this is where they are, Dearborn.”

“We want their votes, and we’re looking for their votes and I think we’ll get their votes,” he said.

Trump’s visit is a continuation of his outreach to the Arab and Muslim community.

His efforts have earned the endorsements of Bill Bazzi, the first Muslim and Arab American mayor of Dearborn Heights, and Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck.

WATCH:

Residents in Dearborn, the home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States, previously shared with Fox News Digital their strong disappointment in the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

TRUMP CRITICISM OF LIZ CHENEY AS ‘RADICAL WAR HAWK’ FRAMED AS CALL FOR VIOLENCE BY ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ MEDIA

“We are really disappointed in what happened in Gaza the last one year,” Rezul, a registered Democrat, previously told Fox News Digital. He said that the Arab community is concerned about the Muslims “dying in Gaza.”

“So just as an American Muslim, I can’t support and people like me can’t support the current administration and Kamala,” Shadi, a Trump supporter, said.

This weekend, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will make a final push to convince undecided voters before Tuesday.

Harris will have stops in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin before wrapping her campaign Monday in Pennsylvania.

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Trump will be traveling to Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Virginia. He’ll end his campaign with stops Monday in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Fox News Digital’s Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.

Pro-Israel leaders and activists are expressing frustration and disappointment that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has yet to plan a vote on a bill aimed at tackling the rising tide of antisemitism on college campuses.

Many fear the delay could lead to the bill getting “watered down” – or potentially getting derailed altogether. 

“This is a very good bill. It’s a very important bill. It comes at a very, very urgent time in terms of the dynamics of our country, and it should be passed, and it should be passed and signed into law right away. I mean, the sooner the better,” said Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli-American Council and former U.S. special envoy to combat antisemitism.

“There’s deep disappointment that this has been slow-rolled,” Rabbi Abrahm Cooper, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, added. “I think, in many ways, taking that tactic only highlights the fact that there are obviously elements of the Democratic Party that are anti-Israel.”

Carr echoed Cooper’s suggestion that the delay could likely be due to concerns that “this bill could reveal fissures that would be embarrassing for some.” 

CNN’S JENNINGS CALLS OUT STUDENT ‘HITLERS,’ ANTISEMITISM ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: ‘OPEN YOUR EYES’

The bill in question is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, passed in bipartisan fashion on May 1. 

It seeks to mandate that the Department of Education adopt the same definition of “antisemitism” used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), an intergovernmental organization aimed at uniting governments and experts to advance and promote Holocaust education. Under the bill, the IHRA definition would become standard for use in Title VI cases brought forward by the Department of Education.

Schumer has promised to put the Antisemitism Awareness Act up for a vote before the end of the year, according to Axios, which reported that he wants to attach the measure to the must-pass defense bill that will be voted on during Congress’ lame-duck session following the election. The move would pressure any potential dissenters to get on board with it.

According to Jewish Insider, Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have opposed the bill on grounds it limits free speech, while the New York Times reported Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has also voiced his own objections.

A spokesman for Schumer indicated the majority leader’s strategy was to attach the bill to another measure senators would feel compelled to vote for.

“Senator Schumer has a long and strong history fighting antisemitism, and the goal with passing antisemitism legislation has long been to use a viable, must-pass vehicle to accomplish that. We fully intend to get it done before the end of the year,” said Schumer Communications Director Angelo Roefaro.

The American Jewish Committee’s Director of Policy and Political Affairs, Julie Rayman, pointed to Schumer’s “earnest commitment to passing impactful legislation to counter antisemitism in the Senate.” 

But other proponents of getting the bill passed, such as Carr, expressed fear that Schumer’s decision to delay the vote until the lame-duck session – which starts after the November election – might jeopardize the bill’s prospects of being passed. 

FOX NEWS ‘ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED’ NEWSLETTER: JEWISH STUDENTS FEEL TARGETED AS COLLEGE RESUMES

“One thing I don’t want to see happen is that this thing will be amended in ways that will make it actually more harmful than not doing anything at all,” Carr said. “My concern is it could get watered down, and the final product could do damage to the very causes that this bill is supposed to advance.” 

Carr pointed to a similar situation that happened in Indiana’s state legislature, where a bill that passed by both chambers was ultimately vetoed by the governor because it failed to incorporate the entire IHRA definition of antisemitism. 

“Senator Schumer’s choice to delay a vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act by attaching it to unrelated legislation is disappointing, risking unnecessary setbacks,” said Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez. Giménez voted in favor of the Antisemitism Awareness Act earlier this year and introduced different legislation targeting hatred towards the Jewish community. “I urge Senator Schumer to act now—protecting students from antisemitism must be a straightforward, bipartisan commitment that doesn’t get sidelined by political calculations.”

Meanwhile, a report released Thursday by Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which followed a year-long probe into antisemitism on college campuses, has led at least one Jewish leader to become concerned about whether Schumer will ever put the Antisemitism Awareness Act up for a vote.

FOX NEWS ‘ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED’ NEWSLETTER: CHICAGO’S JEWISH COMMUNITY SHAKEN BY SHOOTING    

The report alleged that Schumer dismissed the concerns of antisemitism on Columbia University’s campus, which saw months of anti-Israel protesting during the spring semester. According to published reports, Jewish students at Columbia faced such a significant rise in antisemitic behavior on campus that some filed a lawsuit against the university, while a task force created to address the issue found that the school failed to stop hate against Jewish students on campus amid the ongoing protests that followed Oct. 7.

Gerard Filitti is senior counsel with the Lawfare Project, a nonprofit which provides pro bono legal assistance to protect the civil rights of the Jewish community. He argued that in light of the Education and Workforce Committee’s report chronicling Schumer’s laissez-faire attitude towards campus antisemitism, there is “a very real concern” that Schumer might not ever bring the Antisemitism Awareness Act to the floor for a vote at all.

“Senator Schumer’s lack of leadership on one of the most pressing civil rights issues in our country is stunning,” argued Filitti. “Schumer has had six whole months to bring this bill up for a vote, and his failure to do so is not just puzzling but rather troubling; antisemitism is not, and should not be made, a partisan political issue. As with other forms of racism and bigotry, it takes bipartisanship to combat Jew-hatred, and in light of the ongoing crisis of antisemitism we see on college campuses, this bill should have passed the Senate months ago.” 

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a state court ruling that allowed for the counting of certain provisional ballots, in a major setback for the state GOP and Republican National Committee just four days before the election.

The Republican National Committee and the state GOP filed an emergency appeal to the nation’s top court last week seeking to temporarily halt a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that ordered the state to count voters whose provisional ballots had been incorrectly filled out or were missing an inner “secrecy” envelope. 

Attorneys for the Republican Party urged the Supreme Court to grant a full stay of the state’s decision, writing in a final reply brief submitted Thursday evening that such an order would “prevent multiple forms” of “irreparable harm” to the state. 

At a minimum, the court was urged to grant a “segregation order” to allow the ballots to be set aside and counted separately. 

“The actual provisional ballots contain no identifying information, only a vote,” the GOP’s lawyers wrote. “Once ballots are separated from their outer envelopes, there is no way to retroactively figure out which ballots were illegally cast. In other words, once the egg is scrambled, it cannot be unscrambled.”

THE 1.6M VOTERS WHO COULD DETERMINE THE US ELECTION DON’T CURRENTLY RESIDE IN THE COUNTRY

At issue is a lower court ruling in Butler County, Pa., where a local election board had disqualified provisional ballots cast by two residents in the 2024 primary election. That duo joined the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in a lawsuit that sought to have their votes counted, which ultimately was the outcome granted by a state Commonwealth Court and upheld last week by a 4-3 Pennsylvania Supreme Court majority.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court noted in its ruling that provisional votes can be counted only after a person’s eligibility to vote and the rejection of their mail-in ballot are confirmed. 

“Counting Electors’ provisional ballots, when their mail ballots are void for failing to use a Secrecy Envelope, is a statutory right,” state Supreme Court Justice Christine Donohue wrote in the majority opinion, adding that the rule in question is “intended to alleviate potential disenfranchisement for eligible voters.”

In their response to the Supreme Court Wednesday, opponents argued that Republican plaintiffs had left out important case history in the state — primarily, that in the six years since Pennsylvania’s General Assembly had updated its voting law in 2019 to allow mail-in ballots, “most county boards of elections, and most Pennsylvania courts to consider the issue, have counted provisional ballots submitted by voters who had made a disqualifying mistake in attempting to complete their mail ballots.” 

In fact, Butler County was among the few counties that refused to count provisional ballots for votes that were lacking secrecy envelopes, until it became the subject of a lawsuit earlier this year by the two plaintiffs whose votes were not counted.

“Applicants, advancing a divergent interpretation of state law, asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to take the case and decide it before the 2024 General Election,” they wrote. “Last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did just that. That the RNC does not like the result is no reason for this Court to intervene on an emergency basis and disrupt the status quo on the eve of the election.” 

That was contested by Republican plaintiffs. In joining the state GOP in the lawsuit, lawyers for the Republican Party described the case as one of “paramount public importance, potentially affecting tens of thousands of votes in a state which many anticipate could be decisive in control of the U.S. Senate or even the 2024 presidential election.”

26 REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL JOIN VIRGINIA IN PETITIONING SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON VOTER ROLL

The appeal comes as Republicans have filed nearly 100 election-related court challenges in recent weeks, legal challenges they say are aimed at preventing voter fraud through absentee and mail-in ballots. (Democrats, in return, have sought to position themselves as the party that supports free and fair elections, seizing on the Republican lawsuits as a means of disenfranchising voters.)

Many of the lawsuits have been filed in one of seven swing states considered pivotal for either candidate to win the presidency.

In Pennsylvania, the Republican Party’s decision to join a lawsuit over provisional ballots in the final days of the campaign is likely a strategic move, analysts said—a “placeholder” of sorts that allows them to cite a preexisting legal challenge in a swing state that they can point to in pushing for courts to act after an election.

It’s “absolutely” easier to get a court to involve itself in a case after an election if plaintiffs already have a legal challenge on the books, Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. assistant attorney general for the Southern District of New York, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

In those cases, “you could at least look [judges] in the eye and say, ‘look. I’m not asking you to change the result of the election, I’m asking you to address the rules, which is what we tried to do before,’” McCarthy said.

This is especially important in Pennsylvania, the battleground state with the most electoral votes at stake in 2024. 

APPEALS COURT RULES AGAINST GOP IN CASE CHALLENGING 225K VOTER REGISTRATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA 

It is unclear how many residents in Pennsylvania will be impacted by the provisional ballot ruling, and the Republican Party did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Estimates have been murky at best: A 2021 study conducted by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab estimated roughly 1.1% of mail-in ballots were not counted due to missing secrecy envelopes. Mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania have been lower so far in 2024 than 2020, when many relied on that process due to COVID-19 precautions.

More recently, New York University law professor Richard Pildes estimated that the case could affect between 400 and 4,000 ballots in the state – though his “back-of-the-napkin” math focused solely on naked ballots, and not others sent with incomplete information.

In a close race, the wave of recent court cases has led some observers to fear the lawsuits will either disenfranchise would-be voters, keep one or the other candidate’s supporters from participating in the election or sow doubt about the election results.

But analysts told Fox News they doubt that any of these lawsuits will have a protracted impact on the 2024 election, despite the additional scrutiny and media coverage. 

“In the five presidential elections I’ve covered, I don’t think any pre-election challenge had a huge impact,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.

“I think we’re going to have a lot of litigation, but I would be surprised if we have any jugular hits,” Turley said.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

A federal judge on Friday denied Elon Musk’s request to move a Pennsylvania lawsuit over his $1 million daily giveaways to federal court, remanding the case — which centers on whether the giveaways amount to “illegal bribery” under Pennsylvania law — back to the state for a hearing.

The decision is a victory for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who filed a lawsuit earlier this week to stop Musk and his Trump-supporting political action committee from continuing its $1 million giveaways to swing state voters. 

Judge Angelo Foglietta on Friday ordered the hearing to take place Monday at 10 a.m., in accordance with Krasner’s request that the matter be heard “immediately.”

It is unclear whether Musk, whose attorneys filed a motion Friday evening to quash a mandatory attendance provision in the lawsuit, will show up to court.

The D.A.’s office has described the giveaways as an “illegal lottery” aimed at influencing the results of a presidential election and a violation of Pennsylvania law.

It also accused Musk and his PAC of violating consumer protection laws, citing the “deceptive” and “misleading” statements Musk had made about the nature of the contest. 

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Musk’s attorneys had requested the case be heard in federal court, delaying an original hearing scheduled for Thursday. 

Attorneys for the Tesla founder and Trump supporter also used this as a pretext for his failure to show up at an originally scheduled court date in Philadelphia.

They accused Krasner’s office of creating a “circus atmosphere” by naming him in the suit.

In a filing on Thursday night, Krasner urged the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to “immediately” remand the lawsuit back to the state, noting that the lawsuit brought against Musk rests solely on state law claims and has no basis for removal. 

The push to have a federal court oversee the case “is a stunt to obtain a procedural advantage,” he said, and “run out the clock” until the election.

Until the hearing occurs, Musk and the PAC are likely free to continue their daily giveaways.

“Brazenly, they have done so every day since the filing of the Complaint — including this morning, the day of the scheduled hearing,” Krasner said Thursday in filing the emergency request.

The legal battle comes as Musk’s America PAC has awarded $1 million prizes to 14 people to date — which it said it plans to do through Election Day.

Musk had billed the $1 million daily giveaways as an effort to increase voter registration across seven major swing states, and claimed its daily winners are selected at “random.” 

But the district attorney’s office contested this, noting: “Though Musk says that a winner’s selection is ‘random,’ that appears false because multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies in Pennsylvania.”

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The lawsuit notes that all lotteries in Pennsylvania are required to be “operated and administered by the state.” Musk’s daily giveaways, the suit claims, run afoul of that law. 

The Tesla founder and CEO has come under increased scrutiny for the daily giveaways.

Last week, the Justice Department sent a letter to Musk warning that the giveaway scheme might violate federal election laws, which criminalize paying voters to register or participate in elections. 

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