Legal fight over Mississippi counting mail ballots after Election Day is revived

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit that challenges Mississippi’s practice of counting mailed absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days later.

It appears unlikely that the ruling will affect the Nov. 5 election. The judges issued an order saying the ruling would not officially be returned to a lower court until seven days after the deadline for appealing their decision has passed — which is usually at least 14 days. That would put the effect of the ruling well past Nov. 5.

UCLA law professor Richard Hasen wrote on his election law blog that the appeals court ruling was a “bonkers opinion” and noted that “every other court to face these cases has rejected this argument.”

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a July decision by U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who had dismissed challenges to Mississippi’s election law by the Republican National Committee, the Libertarian Party of Mississippi and others. The appeals court order sent the case back to Guirola for further action, but the issue may wind up at the Supreme Court.

Republicans filed more than 100 lawsuits challenging various aspects of vote-casting after being chastised repeatedly by judges in 2020 for bringing complaints about how the election was run only after votes were tallied.

While the ultimate outcome may be negligible in most elections in heavily Republican Mississippi, the case could also affect voting in swing states.

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McGill reported from New Orleans. Associated Press reporter Mark Sherman contributed from Washington.

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