A federal appeals court struck down a Mississippi law that allowed mail-in ballots received within five days of the Nov. 5 election to be counted.
A panel of three judges determined Friday the law was in tension with federal law designating a “day for the election,” and therefore must be struck down. The lawsuit was brought by the Republican National Committee and the Mississippi Republican Party.
In defending its law, the state suggested that its receipt of ballots isn’t a necessary part of voters casting ballots.
“The State’s problem is that it thinks a ballot can be ‘cast’ before it is received,” wrote Judge Andrew Oldham, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
If that were true, Oldham suggested, then a state could allow voters to cast ballots by marking them and then putting them in a drawer or posting photos of them on social media.
“The hypotheticals are obviously absurd,” Oldham, who was appointed to the court by former President Donald Trump , wrote.