US supreme court hears arguments in mail-in ballots case ahead of midterms | US supreme court
The U.S. supreme court is hearing arguments Monday over whether mail-in ballots can be counted if they arrive after election day; This would affect laws in more than a dozen states during a midterm election year.
The justices are considering Watson v Republican National Committee, a challenge to a 2024 Mississippi state law introduced by the Republican party. Mississippi allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they arrive within five business days of election day, as long as they are postmarked by election day. Fourteen states, Washington D.C., and three U.S. territories have similar laws allowing late-arriving ballots to be counted.
Mississippi, a red state, is defending its ability to set its own election procedures against opposition from the Republican party, which argues that the grace period violates federal law that sets election day on the first Tuesday in November.
The court’s conservative justices questioned Mississippi attorney general Scott G Stewart about whether Congress intended to outlaw absentee ballots arriving after election day, pointing out how much elections have changed in recent years. They laid out hypothetical situations, including long grace periods, and asked what the limits on vote counting would be after election day.
Liberal justices asked friendlier questions and brought up other federal laws that grant such grace periods, such as the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
The RNC lost its first case in district court, then won in the fifth circuit court of appeals. Multiple groups representing voting rights advocates, military voters and overseas voters have filed to support the state’s position in the case, saying the additional time allows voters with unique responsibilities to count their votes.
“The logic of the Fifth Circuit’s decision in this case would overturn numerous, well-established state laws that specifically use grace periods to alleviate the unique barriers to voting faced by the U.S. military and overseas voters.” friendly summary “It’s from people and groups who support the Mississippi law,” he says.
National Republicans have fought mail-in voting and its associated rules, a common practice in many states. While some, including Donald Trump, have called for a complete ban on mail-in voting, other Republicans acknowledge that their voters also use mail-in voting at high rates. Getting rid of these grace periods could inadvertently harm Republican candidates.
