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The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 that states can accept mail ballots after polls close in federal races, rejecting the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) push to defeat the practice.
More than a dozen states deem mail ballots that arrive after Election Day valid, so long as they were postmarked by then.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said it doesn’t conflict with federal law, which sets “the Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November” as the “day for the election.”
“The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose,” Barrett wrote.
She and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in the majority. The court’s four other conservative justices dissented.
The Supreme Court’s decision injects a new layer in the fight for control of Congress at a time when Republicans hope to maintain their majorities in both chambers in November.
It also marks a loss for President Trump, who has assailed states for allowing post-Election Day ballots and long insisted that votes should be counted on election night to prevent fraud. His Justice Department backed the RNC’s challenge at the Supreme Court.
But the issue has also spurred a Republican-on-Republican fight.
As some in the party sought to topple the practice, it left Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) defending his state’s law. Mississippi allows mail ballots to be counted if they arrive up to five business days after Election Day.
Mississippi is one of 14 states with similar election laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many are Democrat-controlled states — California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington. But four are not — Alaska, Nevada, Texas and West Virginia.
Mississippi’s defense garnered outside support from groups like the NAACP and League of Women Voters, as well as the Democratic National Committee.
The RNC, which challenged the state’s law alongside the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, received outside support from the House Republicans’ campaign arm, Citizens United and eight GOP-led states, among others.
The decision lands as Trump takes aim at mail voting more broadly. In March, he signed an executive order seeking to restrict who can vote by mail. It’s currently the subject of litigation that remains in lower courts.
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