The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 in favor of Mississippi -vs- RNC that state legislature can decide how long after election day that qualified election ballots cast may be received. [PDF HERE] Essentially, federal election day is election day, but ballots can be received after election day for the length of time determined by state law.
Justice Barrett delivered the majority opinion, joined by Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson.
Justice Alito dissented along with Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
The Hight Court outlined that congress could change the ability of the states by changing the statutory language of the federal election law to require ballots be received by election day. As long as federal law does not outline the deadline for ballot reception, states can extend that process at their legislative discretion. THIS IS A HOT MESS FUBAR!
“The federal election-day statutes do not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days thereafter; nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by election day.”
As noted by Samuel Alito in his well-written dissent, even during the U.S. civil war, soldier ballots had to be counted on “election day“, not days and weeks after.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney-Barrett have once again betrayed the foundational principle within constitutional language. It is infuriating.
If the ballots are bar coded, this will eliminate the shenanigans. They can trace every one and mark each one going to a parking lot etc as undeliverable.
That’s as good idea until big blow bro wants a bar coded chip in your hand. Digital ID is a razor sharp edge that can be used to slice personal liberty from all people.
Like Royce White says,”… convenience will be the death of liberty.”
Voting-
What we need are paper ballots that are hand counted. ALL machines should be excluded. Mailed ballots should be hand signed by the voter & have a verifiable signature & a date stamp attached as well as a strong chain of custody. NO ballots should be accepted after close of polls. The Post Office, a FEDERAL agency, should be tasked with delivering ballots as CERTIFIED mail to polling places & track from address sent to address they go to. Chain of custody signatures of postal workers could be required.
Early voting should be in person only for only 3 ton 5 days before the day of election. Election day should be on a national holiday Saturday & polls open from say 6 am till 8pm.
I don’t mind some use of electronic devices. But not in my car or in control of my bank account. OR in vote counting!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!! BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
SamFox
The sent and returned envelopes are both barcoded. However, if the returned envelopes are not passed through the system, the chain of custody is nullified. The incident with Contract driver Jesse Morgan at Bethpage bulk mail center indicates the system is ripe for finagling and is covered in the case below. Please read.
The USPS is the elephant in the room. The behemoth is older than the country itself. Under individual State initiatives, laws were enacted, making the Postal Service the middleman in their election process.
The ‘sanctity of the mail’ is diminished via the aging and bloated USPS bureaucracy, and made further meaningless by the introduction of ballots sent and returned by mail.
The (dismissed??) Della Rocca Complaint, a civil suit against the state of Maryland and the US Postal Service, is a great guide to how the Postal Service has become intermediary between the people, the state and the federal governments, further disenfranchising voters.
It declares Maryland’s reliance on the United States Postal Service to deliver the ballots of its citizens a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and a violation of the Maryland Constitution.
The Complaint covers the egregious incident of postal contract driver Jesse Morgan’s hauling Gaylord’s of completed mail ballots across state lines, that bypassed the system at Bethpage, then crossed state lines. Ny to PA.
The link is at the bottom of this Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/583885685065133/permalink/8008774829242811/?mibextid=oFDknk&rdid=32sbqCJwlYd0s3Ei
It is the weight of the paper it is that simple.
Nothing complicated….
Too difficult for minorities and islamists…
Congress 100% controls the lower court and legislative agenda.
And that’s why we’re fooked
Steering the ship of state directly into the iceberg.
Seems more like stepping into quicksand and sinking into oblivion. Civil war is coming when the government of the people by the people and for the people will not listen to what citizens want, but only deliver tyranny instead.
What is the rationale of those Republicans who do not want the Save ACT?
In case you haven’t noticed the Supreme Court only gives us the decisions that either don’t really matter or the Leftists can easily side-step and work around. The critical decisions like Cook, mail in ballots and birthright citizenship always go to the Leftists with the President Trump appointees rotating the vote against him!
It also seems that, with the exception of that rotating vote, the Supremes always vote along party lines. How can it be that Supremes, who are supposed experts at constitutional law and are judging the law, blindly so to speak, always end up voting the party line? Is there any other explanation besides political bias for this lack of adherence to blind justice?
Sure, the leftist party can’t think logically or maybe even follow a flow diagram. The conservatives, having common sense and not just emotion, will reason through a problem.
It’s not political, it’s just the nature of people. Crazy emotional leftists likely don’t even have the patience to read every word, whereas conservatives might read every word twice.
It’s a chicken and egg thing. Does their lack of thinking make them a leftist or does being a leftist cause lack of thinking?
minneso–These chicken err, uhhh, ‘stuffs’, are like everyone born of Adam. They are born with the ‘egg’ in them. It’s a sin problem. These people like it & are self indulgent in it. If they had a real clue…all we can do is vote forn conservative people & pray.
SamFox
I have also noticed that.
A Very Important Point on Mail-in-Ballots.
Every election day the US Postal Inspection Service dispatches Postal Inspectors to every Post Office in the United States to inspect and VERIFY that all of the ballot envelopes in the custody of the Post Office (meaning post marked) are out for delivery by COB that day.
What this means is there shouldn’t be mailed ballots being delivered to Democrat run election’s offices for days and weeks after the election yet it happens every year in California, Arizona, Virginia and other corrupt states!
Interesting angle here is last year, USPS changed things so postmarks are now applied when mail hits the first automated sorting machine. The exception is if you take the mail to the counter/window and request a hand-stamped postmark at the time of actually mailing the item.
Assuming the SCOTUS decision means postmarks on or before election day can be enforced, maybe this helps?
The problem I see is, in states that allow unlimited ballot harvesting, showing up at the counter/window with bags of ballots is probably no red flag to anyone.
I worked as a USPS window clerk for over twenty years. There are many old postal stamps in these offices that can easily be taken to be used by the Democrats. Nobody is going to be looking closely at the postmark ‘s outer ring where the year is to even notice if it has an older yearly date.
Also, if the mail carrier does their job and pulls the undeliverable as addressed ballots to return to the sender, who is going to notice if they are given to the local Democrat office instead of the sender. Mail in ballots are made for cheating.
Compounded by the fact APWU is overwhelmingly democrat, per the FEC contributions.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-postal-workers-union/summary?id=D000000143
That’s a joke!!
I worked for the USPS for 35 years in a National Distribution Center and never once in all that time did I see anyone inspecting ballots.
I did however see sacks upon sacks of ballots all over the place for days. (the sacks had special bright colored tags that marked them as ballots) According to our ingenious supervisors, the other mail was more important and had to get out first!
I knew they would never make it to where they were going on time if at all.
The whole Postal Union is Democrat my friend..
Defining what Election Day is seems to be as difficult for Supreme Court justices as defining what a woman is.
Well how long can ballots be accepted after election day? Barrettt doesn’t tell us that. A day? A week? A month? The day before the next election? Can we ever swear someone into office as more ballots might still come in?
Name a day or date when accepting ballots has to end. Or is this to be like tenporary status? Ballots are accepted until the Democratic candidate wins, and then no more ballots are accepted?
Should be a candidates first trip before a judge announcing they will not concede the election until the last vote is counted. Yeah when is that?
Apparently, ACB believes it is up to the state to determine that date and washed her hands of it.
We need comprehensive legislation –maybe even more than what’s in The Save Act. Short of that, no SCOTUS band-aid to cover what Congress should do but won’t do is going to make much difference.
The bigger issue is the total lack of chain of custody at many points of the mail-in ballot process. Receipt by election day would close only part of that. All the blue states need to do is harvest massive numbers of ballots, also making sure there’s a huge number that have to be cured. California codifies both in their election laws (covered by Sundance earlier, noting the big role Eric Holder played in all that).
I think Trump’s proposed USPS angle will help a lot if it stands up to court challenges. AND if we can trust USPS workers. There have been reports of back-dated postmarks among other things.
I do not trust the USPS system when postal workers can be paid under the table for doing the dirty work of the Dumbocrats.
I will never use the local post office here because at least two things I mailed there never reached their destination. Both letters had checks in them. Never again will I be so stupid. A friend had the same problem with mail she had posted there too that had a check in it. There is such a thing as *check washing* rings where the check amount is changed and the fraudsters then cash the check and get the money.
Trust the post office? No thanks.
Nor I.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-postal-workers-union/summary?id=D000000143
Well now the only solution is to flip California Republican and have the State legalize mail in ballots with voter ID only!!! That’s the only option left from our Supreme Corrupt Court!!!???
So, ballots can be counted up to two years or more after a presidential election
Yeah, exactly this.
They’ll probably say they are valid forever, if no one says there are NOT.
Good points! Just like the Forever stamps- we can now have Forever ballots.
So are they now allowed to delay certification of an election until all the votes are counted?
The Constitution has different requirements for Congress and President. State legislatures can appoint electors any way they want, but the electors must vote on the same day in every state.
They look for any way out of making the right decision!
Great way for the DemocRats to cheat, and they will.
Correction: It’s a great way for the Democrats TO KEEP CHEATING and they already do!
It’s easy to see where this will all go, right off into ‘effin crazyland.
The “Keep Vermont Weird” state will be counting ballots for 6 months..
In deep blue state, if they can, they will- this is a fact.
Questions; does the Supreme court “make” law or simply render an “opinion”?
Is the Federal Government bound to obey an “opinion” of the Supreme Court?
Do each of the several states have the power under this decision to have it’s own time period of receiving ballots after election day?
Is it therefore legal that California receive ballots 30 days after election day?
Under this “opinion” of the Supreme Court, is it possible that a state could have until the Next election to receive ballots for the just recently held election?
Therefor, is it possible that a state or collection of states receive ballots up to 10 years in order to disband the Supreme Court or secede from the United States?
Under our constitution, “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members” so it’s up to Congress.
Didn’t Barrett say something like it’s the states who have to change their voting regulations, that the court cannot do that? She said the states have to set the terms about how long they can receive late mail in ballots. So yeah, technically the states can take as long as they want to before certifying the elections.
But doesn’t the federal govt have a say in national elections and with what the Constitution says about election DAY being the DAY VOTING OCCURS?
She didn’t define what Election Day means nor did she cite that clause. Shame on her.
The first election (1972 presidential) my wife and participated in was by absentee ballot. I was stationed at Misawa AFB, Japan. We had to get registered for the first time, request absentee ballots, vote, and send them back to California so they would arrive before election Day. We got it done.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to vote. This is a very bad opinion by the court.
Well, if that’s the case with this incredibly important issue… I think the payments for my insurance, water bill, car loan, mortgage payment, credit card payment, etc. can get where it needs to be after the due date too.
Right? RIGHT? I mean it’s OK for ballots to show up whenever they do and yet be counted, so why can’t my payments? {sarc}
The continuing destruction of our republic continues. Aided and abetted by the “supreme” court.
This is the greatest national security issue we have.
Sadly, President Trump is afraid to do what really needs to be done to fix the issue.
Declare a national emergency and deal with it head on.
80% of the American people want reform now!
Any wins the Supreme Court gives the Democrats, the more Left they will go and given that we’re now dealing with Islam, Communism and an epidemic of stupidity, I think this all pretty alarming as far as what our future looks like.
Since the Postal Service is under the Executive Branch, it is time to declare the Post Office a POLLING PLACE. There should be poll watchers at each post office where mail-in ballots could be received. Pelosi called the Post Office “Election Central” back in 2020, so there better be poll watchers there.
Gary—good thought. For mail in ballots: There should be a slot for a 2 lock ballot box in the Post Office where only ballets can go. When the box is full or on election day, election workers from at least 2 parties sign for the box with ID & take the locked box to the counting place where each of the two main parties has a key. They unlock the box together in front of both party’s counting groups.
Strict chain of custody rules for sure!
Lord willing && us doing there won’t be very many mailed in ballots. That jive HAS to change!
SamFox
No surprise here from SCOTUS.
Now, Donald,…. get the Save Act passed ‘by all means’ and include in it a requirement that All mail-in ballots Must contain a photo copy of the voter’s citizenship and Voter ID. That will slow down the Marxist Dim’s cheating machine and provide grounds for much more voter fraud investigations.
I always come here to The Treehouse to get the Honest and precise answers. You haven’t failed me yet! Now I can actually get a good idea of the meanings of certain Supreme court rulings. (Thanks Miss Sunshine).
So the leftards can simply never end an election if they’re behind but just keep it open until the next election cycle?
The Roberts Court is an abomination, pure and simple. Thank God for Alito and Thomas, the last remaining adults in the room.
Thanks Roberts and Barrett
The usual suspects!
Sooooo, if a state makes their decision that ballots can be counted up until the next Election Day, that’s their right?
God save us from over educated fools!
Another thing- Naomi Wolf has put out a great video about the crooked NY City DemonRat primary “elections” we just had where the Commies all won.
As Naomi brilliantly points out, we won’t know the certified results till after the first week of July.
The system is wonderfully flawed in favor of the Dems.
https://open.substack.com/pub/naomiwolf/p/what-happened-to-our-votes?r=e49v3&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
While it’s true it doesn’t cover drop boxes, it also doesn’t forbid them being stuffed for days after election day. Neither does it cover “curing ballots” for weeks on end.
No more drop boxes. Ballots need to go directly to polling places and be handed to a live person and the person bringing the ballot needs picture ID for every ballot they are trying to hand in.
It seems Barrett just put herself in the running with Jackson for the most stupid and ignorant justice ever.
Barrett’s not stupid. She’s a liberal at heart.
Charlie Brown
“Oh, good grief!
(in case the image goes away for copyright)
When you vote in person at the polling place you have “voted” only when you turn in your ballot, when your completed ballot is placed into the possession of the election officials.
It’s not when you “decided” who to vote for. People can and sometimes do decide to vote but never actually turn in their ballot. They have not voted.It’s not when you marked your ballot or started to walk across the room to turn it in. People can mark their ballot then change their mind. Or they can spoil their ballot, tear it up, mark it out, fail to turn it in, or whatever. People could get distracted and fail to actually drop their ballot into the box or hit “finish” on the machine. Those people have not voted.It’s only when their ballot is physically received into the safekeeping of the election authorities that you have “cast” a ballot and voted.This insane ACB decision sets a different rule for mail-in than for in-person ballots. Her opinion says when the person decides they have “voted.”
To be logically consistent the standard should be that the ballot is not “voted” until it has actually arrived at the election office – not mailed, not postmarked – arrived at the election office on or by election day.
The highest legislative body in the US sets the stage for Civil War: the Union and the Rebels; United about what is best for the people because the people have told them what would be best for us and what is the best way to go about getting those things; and, Rebels because they will never align themselves with the authority of Donald Trump, his cabinet, etc. therefore they will be violent but impotent. It won’t be a straightforward election, but the Union will win. How? I don’t know. The best way would be to pass the bill to secure the voting process. This other way that the Supreme Court opened up will keep the individual members of the court safe but not the people or the voting process. We will win whatever way we have to.
SCOTUS legalizes vote fraud. Manufacture and count ballots after election day for as long as state law allows. Postmarked by election day? Come on. Any political organization can acquire a USPS postmark stamp or machine if they really want to. How ridiculous.
if I mail your birthday card, anniversary card, on the birthday/anniversary day and you don’t receive it until a week later would you consider it on-time? 🙄😁
If you cannot verify an election it cannot be certified .
JB. Williams
According to democrat politicians, judges, lawyers, and the news media, “there was no election fraud in 2020.” This claim is made entirely on the basis that no court in the country has agreed to review any evidence of the fraud in their courtrooms. Every court has taken the Sergeant Shultz “I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing” position, as if ignoring the evidence somehow discredits the evidence, or makes it vanish.
What the courts have actually done is deny due process of law on the most critical case of political corruption in our 244-years. They have violated their oaths, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and every legal American and in so doing, they have all but guaranteed the total collapse of the USA.
The courts, all the way to and including the U.S. Supreme Court, have eliminated themselves from the equation. They are no longer a legitimate active part of our constitutional form of government. They have removed themselves from the process of justice and placed justice in the hands of the American people. The Article III branch of the Federal government (the Judiciary) no longer holds any constitutional authority over anything! They have totally abdicated any lawful authority over anything at this point.
*****
During her nomination process, every CTH administrator raved about Amy Barrett, despite severely strong warnings by attorney Robert Barnes of her liberal rulings as a lower court judge that favored governmental tyranny over constitutional liberties and rights.
EVERY word of Barnes’ warnings has catastrophically come true.
Barrett’s assinine claim that the constitution doesn’t limit WHEN ballots may be counted flies in the face of the constitution’s declaration of a single “election day”.
Barrett should’ve NEVER been nominated, and Democrat’s positive comments on her nomination SHOULD have been an earth shattering wakeup call to every conservative on America, including CTH admins.
I missed the part where ballots received within the 5-day period WITHOUT a postmark are ineligible. I am assuming the postmark is applied by the U.S. Postal Service, not some handwritten notation. And also missing is any clarification of how delivery by common carrier satisfies the postmark requirement.
Horrible
I’ll bet Coney-Barrett and Roberts would care about this if they had to stand for election in a place known for stealing elections. Just sayin’!
Remember that, every four years, we vote for Pres/VP and a slate of electors. The timeline looks like this:
1) usually not later than early September the parties submit to the appropriate secretary of state the names of their candidates for Pres/VP and the linked slate of electors;
2) the secretary of state has ballots printed and distributed;
3) on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November the election is held;
4) ballots are counted and the slate of electors whose candidate[s] won the popular vote is notified;
5) on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December the winning electors are assembled by the secretary of state and cast their “bespoke” vote for Pres/VP;
6) the secretary of state transmits the result of that election to the Congress and certifies those candidates as the winners in that state; and,
7) on January 6 of the next year the Congress unseals those notifications, counts the ballots, and announces an official winner.
Note that the time between the November election and the December counting is always 35 days.
It is all so simple. The illusion of a 50-50 split must be maintained at all costs.
5 individuals have decided how a minority of corrupt states can decide who we have as our President.
If you consider this a problem, I invite you to visit my website — which in general is about how to save our republic — and in particular the site’s topic titled ‘Elections’
The one possible benefit of this ill-advised legalistic decision is that it might force Congress to act.
Personally, I am not optimistic, considering how ineffective Congress is.
Let the election monkey business begin (continue)!
The court is giving wide latitude to the states, so puts the onus on the GOP to pass The Save Act.
Justice Thomas is a stalwart in solid, reasonable and sound decisions. He gives me hope, while most of the recent additions to the Supremes, give me total frustration.
The only reason to accept any votes after election day is to permit fraud as a feature of voting. We, the voters, would disagree vehemently with this decision by a large majority. There is no justification for late votes to be accepted.
The risk of voter fraud and a complete collapse of our Government, possible Civil War is brought within reach by this decision. When this country burns to the ground, it will be because of asinine, absurd rulings such as this one.
Let the hangings begin….
SCOTUS really blew it again…..