The Supreme Court docket on Monday agreed to take up whether or not states can settle for mail-in ballots acquired after polls shut if they’re despatched by Election Day, permitting for a choice forward of subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections.
The Republican Nationwide Committee (RNC) has focused the observe, and it satisfied a decrease court docket that Mississippi’s statute is preempted by federal legislation.
In a quick order, the excessive court docket agreed to listen to Mississippi’s bid to overturn the ruling. Oral arguments are seemingly subsequent 12 months, with a choice anticipated by the summer season that might dictate whether or not the observe can be utilized anyplace forward of the 2026 midterm elections.
Federal legislation units the primary Tuesday in November as Election Day. Republicans have argued any states that settle for ballots afterward contravene the requirement.
Sixteen states depend these late-arriving ballots, based on the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
The Supreme Court docket battle pits the RNC towards GOP officers in Mississippi defending its legislation. The state urged the justices to become involved now, saying a decision was wanted earlier than subsequent 12 months’s contests.
“The stakes are high: ballots cast by—but received after—election day can swing close races and change the course of the country,” the state legal professional basic’s workplace wrote.
The RNC acknowledged the problem is vital, but it surely argued the decrease court docket acquired it proper and didn’t advantage the justices’ overview.
“It should await a case where the lower court answers the question presented incorrectly, should one ever arise,” the RNC wrote in court docket filings.
Already this time period, the court docket agreed to determine who has the authorized proper to convey such lawsuits. Rep. Mike Bost (R-In poor health.) and two of Trump’s electors are interesting a ruling that discovered they will’t problem Illinois’s legislation. Oral arguments befell final month.
However within the new case, Mississippi doesn’t dispute that the RNC can convey its lawsuit, and decrease courts agreed the social gathering had standing to proceed, offering a cleaner path for the justices to achieve the underlying authorized deserves of the observe.
