The US Supreme Court on Monday governed Federal law does not prohibit states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by that date.
The 5-4 decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee vice versa a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The ruling struck down a Mississippi law that allowed officials to count mail-in ballots received up to five business days after Election Day, provided they were postmarked by that date. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority in an unusual orientation that bridged the Court’s ideological divide, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
At issue were the three federal Election Day laws (2 USC § 7, 2 USC § 1 and 3 USC § 1), which provided for a single Tuesday in November for the “election” of the President, Senators and Representatives. The Republican National Committeethe Mississippi Republican Party and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi had argued that the word “election” sets a deadline for both the casting and receipt of ballots, meaning federal law requires all ballots to be in by Election Day.
The court disagreed. Barrett wrote that the defining element of an “election” is always the election of the candidate by the electorate, which is completed at the close of voting, not at the receipt of ballots. The majority pointed this out Uniformed and Foreign Nationals Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which has repeatedly said that it assumes that the deadlines for receiving ballots are a matter of state law, and to the Electoral College provisions of the Constitution, which establish a uniform day for voting but say nothing about receipt.
The court framed the question narrowly, declining to address the scope of Congress’s authority to regulate federal elections or a late argument that mail-in ballots are never actually “cast” until Election Day.
Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch and, in part, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Alito argued that the electorate’s collective decision would not be fully expressed until ballots were collected, and warned that the ruling left open questions about who could deliver the ballots and how late they might arrive.
The case is remanded to the Fifth District for further proceedings.
