The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to hand President Donald Trump a defeat in a closely watched case that could decide the future of mail-in voting, including not only whether states can count ballots after Election Day, but also before — putting at risk early and absentee voting.
The Trump Department of Justice and the Republican National Committee argued before the high court that Mississippi should not be able to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days later,” Politico reported.
The conservative attorneys insisted that they were not trying to eliminate early voting.
“We agree with both sides that early voting is still acceptable,” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told the court. “There could be a process where ballots are being received earlier, but that ballot box has to close on Election Day.”
Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to suggest that Sauer’s deadline was arbitrary.
“I’m not sure I understand how that point is responsive to the point that if the Election Day is the voting and taking that it has to be that day,” Roberts said. “Maybe you’re not saying anything other than, well, that’s different.”
“It’s a challenging question,” Sauer acknowledged.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito appeared most concerned with the concept of counting ballots before and after Election Day, giving “the most voice to concerns President Donald Trump has repeatedly aired and amplified about public suspicion driven by vote tallies potentially being swayed by late-arriving ballots,” Politico noted.
“We are moving in this direction: We don’t have Election Day any more,” Alito said. “We have election month or we have election months, early voting can start a month before the election. The ballot can be received a month after the election.”
Citing amicus briefs, Alito expressed concern, saying that “confidence in election outcomes can be seriously undermined if the apparent outcome of the election on the day after the polls close is radically flipped by the acceptance later of a big stash of ballots that flip the election.”
Politico’s Josh Gerstein commented that the Supreme Court seems “likely to deliver a defeat to Trump and rule states can count ballots received after Election Day, with Roberts, Barrett and maybe Kavanaugh joining the liberals.”
