Republicans are challenging extended mail ballot deadlines in at least two states in a legal maneuver that could have widespread implications for mail voting ahead of this year’s presidential election.
A lawsuit filed last week in Mississippi follows a similar one last year in North Dakota, both brought in heavily Republican states before conservative federal courts. Democratic and voting rights groups are concerned about the potential impact beyond those two states if a judge rules that deadlines for receiving mailed ballots that stretch past Election Day violate federal law.
They say it’s possible such a decision would lead to a nationwide injunction similar to one last year when a Texas judge temporarily paused the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
“This effort risks disenfranchising Mississippi voters, but we don’t want that to also be precedent for other states,” Abhi Rahman, communications director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in response to the most recent lawsuit.
Challenging when mail is valid is very bad for elections, but the second-order effects of this are going to be crazy if these cases are cited for other matters.
election related, but this screws over a number of service members
federal tax deadlines are going to get exciting for everyone who doesn’t e-file and waits for the last few weeks
anything involving a mail notice period would require more time for the notice to be mailed out and provide a longer period for the notice to be responded to.
filing an insurance claim? Postmark date matters. Change the precedent and you might not have your claim be processed until after coverage lapses if your mail goes missing for a bit of time
Really, no business dealing with mail and regulatory deadlines should support this, it seems like it will introduce an insane amount of risk