JACKSON, Madam. — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee that sought to block Mississippi counting of postal ballots that are postmarked on Election Day but are not received until five days after Election Day.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. made the ruling Sunday, the second federal judge in recent weeks to dismiss such a lawsuit.
“Mississippi’s statutory procedure for counting lawfully cast mail ballots, postmarked on or before Election Day and received no more than five business days after Election Day, is consistent with federal law and does not violate the Elections Clause, the Electors’ Clause, or the Election Day statutes,” Guirola wrote.
Another federal judge recently dismissed a similar lawsuit in Nevadarejecting Republicans’ claims that counting ballots postmarked on Election Day but received several days later is unconstitutional and violates federal law.
The Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party, a member of the state Republican Executive Committee and an elections commissioner filed the lawsuit in Mississippi in January against Mississippi Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson and six local election officials. The Libertarian Party of Mississippi later filed a similar lawsuit, and a judge consolidated it with the Republican groups.
The lawsuits alleged that Mississippi is improperly delaying federal elections beyond the election date set by Congress and that, as a result, “timely, valid ballots are being diluted by untimely, invalid ballots.”
In dismissing the lawsuits, Guirola wrote that “no ‘final selection’ is made after Federal Election Day under Mississippi law. The only thing that happens after Election Day is the delivery and counting of ballots cast on or before Election Day.”
Mississippi is one of the states that allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day, the National Conference of State LegislaturesThe list includes swing states like Nevada and states like Colorado, Oregon and Utah that rely heavily on mail-in voting.
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