DNC files Supreme Court amicus brief opposing Republicans’ challenge to safeguards around mail voting 

RNC hopes that dozens of states will throw out lawful ballots cast by election day that arrive soon after, including those of uniformed military voters

Today, the DNC filed an amicus curiae brief ahead of the Supreme Court’s consideration of Watson v. Republican National Committee, the RNC’s challenge to a Mississippi law governing the receipt of mail ballots cast on or before election day. Specifically, Mississippi law allows ballots postmarked by election day and received within five days of the election to be counted. 

Last fall, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Mississippi’s appeal of a lower court’s widely criticized ruling for the RNC, which has been working closely with Donald Trump and his Department of Justice to lay the groundwork to eliminate early and mail-in voting nationwide. If the Supreme Court rules for the RNC, voters around the country will be disenfranchised by mail delays, and key protections for military and overseas voters could be eliminated.

Today, the DNC submitted its brief in the Supreme Court to continue its fight for the rights of voters to securely cast their ballots nationwide, especially working families, seniors and Americans with disabilities, and members of the military who rely on mail-in and early voting to make their voices heard.

DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“Republicans’ continued assault on mail-in voting is an attack on our democracy and is wholly un-American. Donald Trump and the RNC want to limit the rights of voters because they know that when more eligible voters make their voices heard, Republicans lose. Voting by mail is safe, secure, and empowers voters who would otherwise struggle reaching a ballot box, including seniors and people with disabilities, members of the military and their families, and working families who are unable to take the day off to vote. The DNC won’t sit idly by as Republicans attack our electoral system — we will keep fighting like hell to ensure every eligible voter is able to have their vote counted.”

Additional background below on the DNC’s legal actions: 

• The DNC has stood beside Mississippi voters since the RNC filed this lawsuit and has retained Don Verrilli, the former U.S. Solicitor General who successfully defended the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court, to helm its defense.
  
• Today, 29 States and the District of Columbia count ballots cast by election day that arrive soon thereafter. 15 of those States provide this accommodation only to uniformed military and overseas voters.
  
• States have been counting ballots that arrive after election day since the Civil War, and Congress enacted laws setting a uniform election day more than a century ago. Only after President Trump blamed mail voting for his 2020 election loss did the RNC challenge state ballot receipt deadlines as violating the election-day statutes.
   
• In the lower Courts, the Justice Department defended Mississippi’s law and explained that the RNC’s theory in this case would prevent the Department from obtaining relief for military voters when states fail to mail ballots under the time frame required by federal law. As a direct result of President Trump’s Executive Order on election administration, Trump’s Justice Department has now abandoned military voters in the Supreme Court.

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