The United States Supreme Court ruled that Wisconsin cannot accept absentee ballots postmarked after April 7, the election day, Monday night.
According to The Hill, there was a 5-4 vote, in which conservative justices sided with Republican state lawmakers by halting a lower court order to extend absentee voting to April 13.
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Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh spoke for the majority, writing that it would alter the election.
“Extending the date by which ballots may be cast by voters — not just received by the municipal clerks but cast by voters — for an additional six days after the scheduled election day fundamentally alters the nature of the election,” Kavanaugh wrote.
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Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissent that was supported by fellow liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
“The district court, acting in view of the dramatically evolving COVID–19 pandemic, entered a preliminary injunction to safeguard the availability of absentee voting in Wisconsin’s spring election,” Ginsburg wrote.
The dissent said that this decision would prevent absentee voters who have reacted to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic from casting their votes.