A Mississippi statute that permits ballots to be counted provided they are received within five business days following election day is being challenged in the Watson v. Republican National Committee case.
Citing long-standing precedent, Mississippi election officials contend that the moment a ballot is mailed in the mail, a voter has cast their ballot on or before election day, and that how it arrives at an election office after that is an administrative matter.
“As a matter of plain meaning, an ‘election’ is the conclusive choice of an officer. Voters make that choice by casting – marking and submitting – their ballots by election day,”
argues the state of Mississippi in its petition to the supreme court for review.
“The election has then occurred, even if election officials do not receive all ballots by that day.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, sixteen states, together with Washington, DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico, permit a domestic voter's mail-in ballot to be counted if it is postmarked by the election and arrives within a specific window of time following election day.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, one of the country's most conservative circuits, overturned a Mississippi federal judge's decision to uphold the state's legislation. According to the majority of that court, it is against federal law to allow ballots to arrive after the designated day for federal elections.
The Republican National Committee cited the Fifth Circuit ruling in its answer to the Supreme Court appeal filing, stating that it "distinguished between an individual 'voter's selection of a candidate' and 'the public's election of the candidate." Only "when the final ballots are received and the electorate, not the individual selector, has chosen" is an election considered final.
In an alternate correspondence- in ballot case, Bost v. Illinois, which contests Illinois's practice of counting ballots postmarked on election day but entered up to two weeks later, judges are mooting who has the right to suit.
Also, the court is considering a significant challenge to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which seems likely to circumscribe the reach of the major civil rights legislation.
The practice of permitting ballots to arrive beyond election day has drawn criticism from Republicans and Donald Trump. This time, at least three countries have stopped permitting late- arriving ballots, and the chairman's administrative order from March tried to correct the countries that continued the practice.
How could this decision impact overseas and military absentee voting?
The Supreme Court decision on whether countries can count correspondence-in ballots entered after Election Day could significantly impact overseas and military absentee voting, which heavily relies on extended deadlines to insure ballots transferred from abroad arrive on time.
Military labor force and overseas choosers bounce under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which requires countries to accept ballots postmarked by Election Day and entered within a reasonable time subsequently, frequently five to ten days. These extended deadlines fete the postal detainments essential in transferring ballots internationally and are essential for icing these choosers' participation.
Still, it could enfranchise numerous overseas and military choosers who submit ballots well before Election Day but face postal conveyance detainments, If the Court rules that ballots arriving after Election Day must be disqualified despite being posted on time.