Society for the Rule of Law Statement on Supreme Court Ruling in Watson v. Republican National Committee.

The Society for the Rule of Law welcomes this morning’s Supreme Court decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee, in which the Court ruled that states may count lawfully cast ballots mailed by, but received after, election day. The ruling upholds the plain text and historic meaning of the law while reaffirming basic principles of federalism.

As the Court wrote:

“The sole question before us is whether counting ballots postmarked by election day, but received up to five days later, violates the federal election-day statutes. The federal election-day statutes do not preempt Mississippi’s law. The defining element of an “election”—the term used in all three federal statutes—has always been the electorate’s choice of candidate.” In short, as the Society for the Rule of Law Institute argued in its amicus brief, an election occurs when voters choose candidates, not when a state receives ballots.”

The Institute’s brief, which the Court specifically cited during oral argument, explained:

“The text and history of the pertinent federal statutory provisions, and the constitutional provisions they implement, show that a federal election consummates when voters must transmit their choices.”

Significantly, the Court also made a key argument advanced by the Institute brief: that mail-in voting is analogous to how the Electoral College operates. Namely, electoral votes are cast on a statutorily prescribed day in December, but later counted in Washington. As the Court concluded:

“The Constitution therefore envisions a system in which receipt is necessarily divorced from voting, and it sets the crucial, uniform day as the day of voting, leaving receipt to happen down the line.”

Free and fair elections depend on the rigorously neutral application of election law and the rejection of partisan attempts to manipulate it. The Supreme Court today properly exercised its indispensable stewardship of the statutory and constitutional guardrails that uphold our rights and liberties.