The Supreme Court on Monday evening voted 5-3 against Democrats who were pushing to extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots in Wisconsin by six days in order to provide the state more time to deal with the surge in mail-in voting caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The decision, announced in an order, came eight days before Election Day. Wisconsin is a key battleground state in the battle between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, ballots will have to be delivered by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 to be counted.
The court’s eight justices divided along partisan lines, with the court’s three Democratic-appointees in dissent. The order, which came amid a flurry of election-related disputes that are making their way to the justices, was released as the Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Barrett’s confirmation gives conservatives a 6-3 majority.
The top court’s order followed a ruling from District Court Judge William Conley last month extending the state’s absentee ballot counting deadline in response to a suit from the Democratic National Committee and its allies. Conley cited the unusually high number of ballots cast by mail as well as delays with the Postal Service.
A similar 6-day extension that was in place for Wisconsin’s April elections resulted in 80,000 ballots being counted that otherwise would have been disqualified, or 5% of the total ballots, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
A panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Conley’s ruling earlier in October. The Democrats appealed to the Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court ruling, but the justices declined to do so.
