A ruling that Mississippi mail-in ballots cannot be counted until after Election Day could have major implications for US elections.
An appeals court found that late ballots violated federal law — opening up the possibility of Republican challenges across the U.S.
A ruling by the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals prevents Mississippi election officials from counting ballots received after Election Day, even if they were postmarked before the election.
In reaching its decision, the 5th Circuit cited Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh: “As Justice Cavanaugh recently emphasized: ‘Clearly, a state does not hold an election without a deadline. Sakti… The deadline is not unconstitutional simply because of the electorate’s ‘failure to take timely steps to ensure their right to vote’.
Citing Kavanaugh in the final paragraph of the decision, the conservative 5th Circuit appeared to signal to the Supreme Court why the ruling should be upheld in the event of a higher appeal.
It also notes in the same paragraph: “Federal law requires voters to take timely action to vote by Election Day. And federal law allows the state of Mississippi to have one day, five days, or 100 days in the voting period.” does not allow for extension.
However, the 5th Circuit decision will be sent to a lower court for implementation and will not become law before the presidential election.
Newsweek The Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee sought email comment on Tuesday.
Richard Hessen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on the Election Law Blog that the decision was a “bonkers opinion.”
“It just goes to show you that sometimes cases only become important when judges do things that are completely unexpected. I guess we should expect more of that going forward,” he said. wrote
Hesson also noted: “Mississippi is one of several states whose statutes allow the counting of mail-in ballots if they are postmarked after Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The list includes swing states like Nevada and Colorado that rely heavily on mail-in voting.”
It’s one of more than a dozen Republican National Committee challenges to mail-in ballots ahead of the presidential election.
Mail-in ballots tend to favor Democrats, and so Republicans have launched challenges in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and other states.
The 5th Circuit found that late ballots violated federal law, even if the ballots were postmarked on Election Day.
Friday’s decision reversed an opinion by federal judge Luis Garrula Jr., who rejected a Republican challenge in July.
Mississippi election officials have 14 days to appeal the 5th Circuit’s decision. Seven days after that deadline, Girola will be moved to enforce the 5th Circuit’s order, which means it won’t go into effect until after the presidential election.
In addition, the 5th Circuit noted that courts have previously tried to avoid implementing changes until shortly before the election—an indication that it does not want its decision to take effect before the Nov. 5 election.