The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a GOP-backed law in South Carolina which required a witness sign each absentee ballot, blocking a federal judge’s order which had lifted the signature requirement due to the pandemic.
Without any dissent, the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts should defer to pandemic-related decisions made by state elections officials, according to Bloomberg.
“A state legislature’s decision either to keep or to make changes to election rules to address Covid–19 ordinarily should not be subject to second-guessing by an unelected federal judiciary,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The Supreme Court order is a blow to Democrats in a state where they are trying to unseat a high-profile senator — Republican Lindsey Graham. Polls show Democrat Jaime Harrison in a close race with Graham in the Republican-leaning state.
The Supreme Court said its order — and the witness requirement –wouldn’t apply to ballots that have already been cast and arrive within two days. Officials have already received more than 8,000 ballots. –Bloomberg.
And while the order won’t apply to ballots which have already been cast, conservative justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch said they would have applied the witness requirement even to those which had been.
According to angry Democrats, the Supreme Court intervention could inject confusion so close to election day – potentially disenfranchising thousands of voters in a state which is letting every voter request a mail-in-ballot for the first time. Over 150,000 ballots have already been sent out. – READ MORE
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