The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 that federal law does not require mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day.
The lawsuit challenging the mail-ballots was filed by the Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi.
Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion and said state laws allowing mail-in ballots to be counted after Election Day do not conflict with federal law.
Chief Justice Roberts joined Amy Coney Barrett and sided with the liberal justices.
“A Mississippi law permits the counting of absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days later. We must decide whether the federal election-day statutes preempt Mississippi’s law. They do not,” Amy Coney Barrett wrote.
“The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose,” Barrett wrote in the majority opinion.
“Due dates for absentee ballots have shifted over time. During the Civil War, States that allowed absentee voting imposed an election-day deadline for ballot receipt,” Coney Barrett said.
Recall that earlier this year Conservative Justice Samuel Alito blasted the endless counting of mail-in ballots during oral arguments.
“We have lots of phrases that involve two words, the second of which is ‘day.’ Labor Day, Memorial Day, George Washington’s birthday, Independence Day, birthday, and Election Day,” Alito said.
“They are all particular days. So if we start with that, if I have nothing more to look at than the phrase ‘Election Day,’ I think this is the day in which everything is going to take place,” Alito added.
Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett appeared skeptical during the oral arguments.
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