Non-attendant polling forms that show up previously or on Nov. 12 in North Carolina will be checked after the US Supreme Court declined Wednesday to hear a case challenging the state’s cutoff time expansion.
Despite pleas from high-profile Republicans for the Supreme Court to hear contentions for the situation, Wednesday’s 5-3 vote leaves undisturbed a choice by the state’s Board of Elections to extend the grace period for getting non-attendant polling forms from three to nine days because of the ongoing Covid pandemic.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined the high court’s liberal in the larger part, while Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas disagreed.
Recently sworn-in Justice Amy Coney Barrett didn’t participate in the vote because of a “requirement for a brief goal and on the grounds that she has not had the opportunity to completely review the parties’ filings,” court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.
According to North Carolina’s State Board of Elections, absentee ballots still must be postmarked by Election Day and will have to be received no later than 5 p.m. on Nov. 12.
“North Carolina voters had a huge win tonight at the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court upheld the State Board of Elections’ effort to ensure that every eligible vote counts, even during a pandemic,” North Carolina’s Attorney General, Josh Stein said in a tweet.
“Voters must have their mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, but now we all have certainty that every eligible vote will be counted. Let’s vote!”
Republican state Senate Leader Phil Berger, however, said the decision will ultimately undermine the public’s confidence in the government.
“May unelected bureaucrats on a state panel controlled by one political party overrule election laws passed by legislatures, even after ballots have already been cast? If public confidence in elections is important to our system of government, then hopefully the answer to that question is no,” Berger said in a statement.
