The DNC filed an amicus brief in this case as part of our ongoing efforts to counter Republicans’ assaults on mail-in voting and protect voters’ rights

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 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. 

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

If the Supreme Court rules for the RNC, voters around the country could be disenfranchised by mail delays, and key protections for military and overseas voters could be eliminated.

In response, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“Republicans’ relentless assault on mail-in voting is not just un-American, but will harm our service members and their families who have risked it all for our democracy. The DNC refuses to sit idly by while Donald Trump and the RNC try to silence voters and attack our electoral system. The DNC will keep fighting to ensure every eligible voter has 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 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.