A Commonwealth Court has ruled that provisional ballots cast on Election Day to correct flawed mail-in ballots must be set aside.

The decision by Judge P. Kevin Brobson came down following a hearing Friday in Harrisburg involving Republicans who filed a lawsuit against state Secretary Kathy Boockvar.

Among the plaintiffs was Joe Hamm, a newly elected 84th state House lawmaker from Hepburn Township, who lauded the judge’s ruling, and U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Erie.

The complaint aimed to prevent counties from tallying provisional votes cast by voters with disqualified mail-in ballots.

On the eve of the election, Boockvar affirmed those votes could be counted and authorized all counties to be able return erroneous ballots.

In some cases, political campaigns had notified voters whose mail-in ballots had been rejected to cast provisional votes instead.

The plaintiffs contended that Boockvar went against a state Supreme Court ruling.

State Senators called on her to resign.

“This is a win for the people of the 84th House District and the people of Pennsylvania,” Hamm said.

Brobson’s ruling granted part of the petition filed.

Hamm said although he would have liked to have seen Judge Brobson go further in his ruling, he was ultimately happy that the law is being upheld.

“Certainly, we would have liked Judge Brobson to rule on some other things,” he said.

“Judge Brobson made the right decision in saying ballots must be set aside,” he continued. “It’s a loud message to Gov. Wolf and Secretary of State Boockvar. Elections are decided by the people.”