U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Critical Case on Mail Ballot Deadlines
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will hear arguments in Watson v. RNC, a case that could determine whether millions of voters nationwide will have their ballots counted if they are postmarked by Election Day but arrive after.
The case challenges Mississippi's law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted if they arrive within five business days. That law was passed nearly unanimously by Mississippi’s Republican controlled legislature in 2020 to protect voters from having their ballots thrown out due to unpredictable mail delays. Sixteen other states and Washington, D.C. have similar grace periods for all voters, and a majority of states offer similar grace periods for military voters. All these laws could be at risk if the Supreme Court sides with the Republican National Committee's interpretation of federal election law. In recent election cycles, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots cast by eligible voters before Election Day would have been rejected in elections in states across the country if not for grace period laws. Military voters, other voters who are temporarily away from home, and disabled voters are particularly reliant upon this type of law. Indeed, the Department of Justice has at times sued to extend ballot deadlines past election day for military voters when states have failed to timely distribute mail ballots to those voters.
Elias Law Group and the Mississippi Center for Justice represent Vet Voice Foundation and the Mississippi Alliance for Retired Americans, two organizations that intervened to defend Mississippi's mail ballot deadline against the Republican challenge.
"This case is about whether millions of voters will be disenfranchised through no fault of their own," said Marc Elias, Firm Chair of Elias Law Group. "The RNC's position would force states to throw away thousands upon thousands of lawful, valid ballots cast by eligible voters for no other reason than the U.S. Postal Service—which has been experiencing extensive and unpredictable mail delays, made worse under this Administration—failed to deliver them by Election Day, something that is often entirely out of the voters’ control. That's not what federal law requires, and it's certainly not what voters deserve. Ballots cast on time and in accordance with the law should count."
“Voting should never be a race against the mail,” said Kimberly Jones Merchant, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “Recognizing the real challenges of absentee voting and mail delays, Mississippi and other states wisely allow extra time to ensure every lawful vote is counted. The Supreme Court should correct the misguided decision of the appellate court and allow states to continue giving voters a reasonable opportunity to have their absentee ballots counted.”
Every court to address this claim has rejected it—until an outlier panel of the Fifth Circuit issued its widely criticized opinion. The Fifth Circuit’s analysis runs counter to the plain text of the federal laws it interprets, ignores Congress’s clearly expressed approval of ballot grace periods, and contradicts over a century of historical practice dating back to the Civil War.
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