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Wisconsin Republicans Win Hold on Mail-in-Ballot Extension

Wisconsin Mail-in-Ballot Extension Put on Hold Again by Court

Wisconsin Republicans won a round in their legal fight against an extension on counting mail ballots after Election Day.

In a 2-1 decision, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Thursday said the judge who extended the deadline by six days for ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3 had overstepped by ordering changes so close to the election. While the judge sought to accommodate an expected increase in such votes because of the coronavirus pandemic, the appeals court said Covid-19 can’t be construed as a last-minute event necessitating last-minute changes.

“Voters have had many months since March to register or obtain absentee ballots,” the majority judges said in their decision, which put the extension on hold. “Reading the Constitution to extend deadlines near the election is difficult to justify when the voters have had a long time to cast ballots while preserving social distancing.”

The ruling is a reversal by the appellate panel. On Sept. 29, court had rejected an appeal by Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature for lack of standing. But the appeals court relented after the state Supreme Court said the legislature has the authority to challenge the judge’s decision.

The dissenting judge, Ilana Rovner, called the decision a travesty.

“At a time when judicial intervention is most needed to protect the fundamental right of Wisconsin citizens to choose their elected representatives, the court declares itself powerless to do anything,” Rovner said.

All three judges on the appellate panel were appointed by Republican presidents.

While President Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by 1 percentage point over Hillary Clinton, this year’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden had a 5.5-point edge over Trump in the state as of last week, according to the RealClear Politics average of recent polls.

Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit by a conservative group to force the state’s election commission to purge more than 200,000 people from voter rolls because they might have moved and didn’t respond to notices whether they were still at the same address as where they are registered to vote. A decision in that case isn’t expected before the election.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.