The following is a press release from Judicial Watch.
Judicial Watch announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has issued an opinion reversing a lower court ruling on Mississippi’s election law, which permitted absentee ballots to be received as late as five business days after Election Day.
Earlier this year, Judicial Watch filed the civil rights lawsuit challenging the Mississippi election law on behalf of the Libertarian Party of Mississippi (Libertarian Party of Mississippi v. Wetzel et al. (No. 1:24-cv-00037)). The case was consolidated with similar lawsuits brought by the Mississippi Republican Party and other complainants.
The Fifth Circuit opinion stated:
“Congress statutorily designated a singular ‘day for the election’ of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors. 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. Because Mississippi’s statute allows ballot receipt up to five days after the federal election day, it is preempted by federal law. We reverse the district court’s contrary judgment and remand for further proceedings.”
Judicial Watch argued that holding voting open for five days past Election Day violates the constitutional rights of voters and candidates. The organization explained that “counting untimely, illegal, and invalid votes, such as those received in violation of federal law, substantially increases the pool of total votes cast and dilutes the weight of votes cast by Plaintiff’s members and others in support of Plaintiff’s federal nominees.”
The complaint noted that as many as 1.7% of votes cast in Mississippi during the 2020 election were received after Election Day. In its appeal filings, Judicial Watch maintained that the Mississippi law allowing ballot receipt beyond Election Day conflicts with federal law and undermines voter rights.
“This is a historic victory for election integrity and voter confidence,” said “This precedent ensures that only ballots that arrive by Election Day can be counted under federal law. We hope this begins a national movement to increase voter confidence, comply with federal law, and limit voter fraud by counting ballots that arrive only by Election Day.”
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch President
Judicial Watch is recognized as a national leader in election integrity and voting rights. Their team of experienced voting rights attorneys has successfully stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, cleaned up voter rolls in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and taken similar actions across multiple states.
Robert Popper, a Judicial Watch senior attorney, leads the organization’s election law program. Popper previously served in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, where he managed voting rights investigations, litigations, consent decrees, and settlements in dozens of states.
In similar lawsuits, Judicial Watch challenged Illinois in 2022 for allowing vote-by-mail ballots to be counted up to 14 days after Election Day, even if the ballots had no postmarks but were dated on or before Election Day. This May, Judicial Watch also sued California under the National Voter Registration Act to compel voter roll cleanup, and in March, Judicial Watch, along with other groups, sued Illinois officials to force further voter roll maintenance.
Read the full Fifth Circuit opinion here.
For more information, read the full press release at Judicial Watch.
Rightly so! Why is common sense even questioned ? What in the world does Nov 5th mean to some people?
I you can’t get off your lazy ash and vote before Nov 4 why should you think your someone special with special disposition???
I concur with Harold’s viewpoint. There was too much questionable activities surrounding the 2020 election that, up to this point, has not been appropriately addressed. This is a good start.