5th Circuit Rules Ballots Must Arrive On Election Day

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dropped a bombshell ruling on Friday that could have major implications for this year’s elections.

The court ruled against a Mississippi law that allowed ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days afterward to be still counted.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, has returned the issue to a lower court for further examination. This decision would only affect Mississippi if a federal district court judge agrees to prohibit the state from counting late-arriving mail-in ballots, the Washington Examiner reported.

The three-judge panel stated that “Election Day,” as designated by Congress, is the last day ballots should be cast and received by state officials.

“Text, precedent, and historical practice confirm this ‘day for the election’ is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials,” the court wrote, adding that Mississippi’s law allowing ballots to be counted if received up to five days after Election Day also conflicts with federal law.

While Republicans sought an injunction to block the policy immediately, the judges refused and instead returned the case to the lower court to determine “appropriate relief,” emphasizing the importance of maintaining the status quo of the voting process as the election approaches.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley lauded the decision as a “MASSIVE ELECTION INTEGRITY VICTORY.”

MASSIVE ELECTION INTEGRITY VICTORY:

The 5th Circuit has just ruled that ballots must be received BY ELECTION DAY to be counted — not days after — following an RNC lawsuit.

This is a seismic win for fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections.

— Michael Whatley (@ChairmanWhatley) October 25, 2024

“The 5th Circuit has just ruled that ballots must be received BY ELECTION DAY to be counted — not days after — following an RNC lawsuit. This is a seismic win for fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections,” Whatley added in an X post.

The RNC, along with former President Donald Trump’s campaign, has filed lawsuits in multiple states this election cycle challenging policies that permit ballots to be counted if received after Election Day. Approximately 20 states, along with Washington, D.C., count mail-in ballots received after Election Day, provided they are postmarked by that date.

Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that voters who cast faulty mail-in ballots can subsequently cast provisional votes.

In a four-to-three decision, the state Supreme Court determined that the Butler County Board of Elections must count the provisional ballots of voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for not following instructions properly. Voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for lacking the secrecy envelope, missing information, or containing inaccurate information are now allowed to vote using provisional ballots, the Washington Examiner reported.

“It is difficult to discern any principled reading of the Free and Fair Election Clause that would allow the disenfranchisement of voters as punishment for failure to conform to the mail-in voting requirements when voters properly availed themselves of the provisional voting mechanism,” the majority ruling said.

Butler County residents had sued the election board after their provisional ballots were rejected during the 2024 primary. After an intermediate court ruled in favor of the residents, the case was appealed by the Republican National Committee.

A provisional ballot is cast when a voter’s eligibility is in question and is only counted after their eligibility is confirmed.

The state’s Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling last week, determining that mail-in ballots with incorrect dates or no dates on the exterior of the envelope cannot be counted in what supporters viewed as a significant win for advocates of election integrity.

In a 4-3 ruling, the state’s highest court stated that a lower court, which had deemed the mandate unenforceable, should not have heard the case since it did not involve election boards from all 67 counties, according to The Associated Press. In Pennsylvania, counties are responsible for administering elections, but the left-leaning groups that filed the case only sued two counties—Philadelphia and Allegheny.

Two weeks prior, the Commonwealth Court had paused the enforcement of handwritten dates on exterior envelopes. The Supreme Court’s reversal of this decision now raises the possibility that thousands of ballots arriving on time could be discarded in a crucial swing state, potentially affecting the outcome of a closely contested presidential race.

Notably, more Democrats tend to vote by mail in this battleground state than Republicans.