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US Supreme Court Won’t Extend Wisconsin Ballot Deadline, Justices ‘Spar’ in Opinions

Mail-In Ballot with Mask

On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled against allowing extended deadlines for turning in ballots in the key battleground  state of Wisconsin. The decision has caused havoc in the Democratic Party who were expecting the state to allow an extra six days for voters to turn in their ballots.

The Court refused to revive a trial court ruling which would have extended Wisconsin’s deadline for receiving absentee or ‘mail-in’ ballots, with Justices citing concerns about ‘post-election chaos’ which could stem from allowing the vote count to drag on.

Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, maintained that federal trial judges should not be in a position to alter state voting rules so close to election day.

“Elections must end sometime, a single deadline supplies clear notice, and requiring ballots be in by Election Day puts all voters on the same footing,” wrote Justice Gorsuch.

The vote was 5 to 3, with conservative of Justices in the majority, with other justices filing both concurring and dissenting opinions in a 35 pages addendum.

Election Night ‘Cliffhanger’?

The Court’s divide on the ballot ruling revealed what appears to be some pre-Election Day sparring among the Justices, foreshadowing the possibility of a legal battle in states after next week’s presidential election, according to Politico.

In his concurring opinion, Justice Kavanaugh wrote:

“Those States want to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election. And those States also want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter.”

In response, Justice Elena Kagan, who was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, wrote in her dissenting opinion:

“Justice Kavanaugh alleges that ‘suspicions of impropriety’ will result if ‘absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election. But there are no results to ‘flip’ until all valid votes are counted. And nothing could be more ‘suspicio[us]’ or ‘improp[er]’ than refusing to tally votes once the clock strikes 12 on election night. To suggest otherwise, especially in these fractious times, is to disserve the electoral process.”

Just minutes after the Court’s decision on Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted out:

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