Supreme Court allows late-arriving mail ballots, leaving California’s system unaffected
WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court on Monday upheld state laws that allow mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive later to be counted.
5-4 decision He rejects Republican challenges to laws allowing late-arriving ballots to be counted in California and 13 other majority-Democratic states.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. He joined with three liberals to form the majority.
The decision is a mild surprise and should boost Democrats in the fall elections.
Although it contributed to the slow seven-day tabulation of mail ballots in California, it did not appear to trigger fraud or unreliable vote counts.
Election law experts say the increase in vote-by-mail combined with the need to carefully match signatures on those ballots is due to slow counting.
The court said federal law has set election day nationwide since 1845 as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and voters must cast their votes that day.
Citing this fact, the Republican National Committee and the Trump administration Joins objection to Mississippi law Law passed during the COVID-19 pandemic that allows ballots that are up to five days late to be counted.
Trump’s lawyers said federal law overrides or overrides state law.
“Since the dawn of America, election day has meant the day the polls close and election officials must receive all ballots.” Attorney General D. John Sauer wrote.
Democrats said the Constitution says “the time, place, and manner of holding elections” for Congress “shall be determined by the legislature in each state.” However, Congress was given the power to override these state rules and set its own regulations for federal elections.
Barrett said federal election day only requires that voters have to decide by then.
“Election day statutes require that electors be selected on election day. This occurs as long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote, as is the case in Mississippi,” he wrote. “But election day laws do not set a deadline for ballot receipt, thus preventing Mississippi from counting ballots that were postmarked before Election Day but received later.”
Congress could have banned late-arriving ballots from being counted, but it did not. This may be because states want to count ballots from military personnel stationed abroad, even if they arrive late.
But last year, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans struck down Mississippi’s law that allowed counting votes cast by Election Day but arriving five days later.
The opinion by three judges, all appointed by Trump, concluded that the election day designated by Congress “is the day on which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials.”
In its appeal, Mississippi stuck to the state’s view of rights, arguing that federal election day laws mean ballots must be cast — not received — until election day.
“This is a victory for voters and for an election system that meets the needs of the people it serves,” said Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón. “Eligible Americans should not lose their voice due to mail delays beyond their control.”
