Supreme Court rejects request to extend Wisconsin mail-in ballot deadline

The Supreme Court on Monday night refused to reinstate a Wisconsin federal court's order to extend the deadline for absentee ballots in the state.

The district court's order was put on hold by a federal appeals court. The justices split 5-3, with the conservative justices opposing the extension, which would have let election officials count mail-in ballots as long as they are received up to six days after the Nov. 3 election.

Democrats have argued that because of the coronavirus pandemic, more voters will use mail-in ballots and there needs to be additional time to count them all. Wisconsin is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases, and hospitalizations have reached a record high.

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In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the Supreme Court "has failed to adequately protect the nation's voters," adding that in April, Wisconsin allowed a six-day extension during primary voting, and about 80,000 ballots were received on the day after the primary election. Justice Neil Gorsuch said while "no one doubts that conducting a national election amid a pandemic poses serious challenges," that does not mean "individual judges may improvise with their own election rules in place of those the people's representatives have adopted."