In 2016, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by a total of 0.7 points over his challenger, Hillary Clinton. In North Carolina, he won by only 2.6 points. In North Carolina today, Trump trails Biden across an average of polls by only 0.7 points and is losing Pennsylvania by just 2.5 points. Instead of working harder to win those states, the GOP is determined to just stop their votes from being counted.
Pennsylvania and North Carolina—2 states that are key in Trump’s chances of re-election—will have extended mail-in ballot deadlines after a Democratic Party victory in the Supreme Courthttps://t.co/d7tE1pDssM
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 29, 2020
A case brought before the Supreme Court on Wednesday challenging North Carolina’s rules around counting ballots that are postmarked prior to Election Day but don’t arrive until after Nov. 3, and that case was voted down in a 5-3 vote by the SCOTUS on Wednesday. As a result, voters in North Carolina will have their votes counted provided that their ballots arrive up to six days after Election Day is over, and a similar ruling came down regarding Pennsylvania.
‘The Supreme Court late Wednesday declined to block lower court rulings that allow six extra days for accepting ballots sent by mail in North Carolina. The justices left the later deadline in place, a victory for Democrats in a presidential battleground state.
‘Earlier in the day, in a defeat for Republicans, the court declined to take another look, on a fast track, at the issue of late arriving mail ballots in Pennsylvania, leaving intact a lower court ruling that said the state must count ballots that arrive up to three days after the election.’
More SCOTUS election news: The court, in a 5-3 vote, leaves in place a six-day extension of the deadline for absentee ballots to be received in North Carolina. The GOP wanted SCOTUS to block a ruling that allowed the extension. Barrett did not participate.https://t.co/sK6ElYffRC pic.twitter.com/UIMn0tkABs
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) October 28, 2020
In court case after court case, Trump and the GOP have argued that mail-in voting leads to massive voter fraud, but in no case thus far have they offered any substantial evidence of this. A host of judges have reviewed their cases finding no evidence of their claims of potential harm, and the same is true of North Carolina, despite the GOP’s best efforts.
‘The Trump campaign, state and national Republican parties, and Republican leaders of the state legislature said a decision by North Carolina’s Board of Elections to extend the deadline, upheld by lower federal courts, had posed “an immediate threat to the integrity of the federal elections process.”‘
A new petition filed with the Supreme Court late Tuesday highlights the impact that Justice Amy Coney Barrett could play, not only as her vote applies to current voting disputes but any post-election challenges over procedures like ballot counting https://t.co/UDXDzKXPko
— CNN (@CNN) October 28, 2020
What’s most important for North Carolina voters to know now is that they won’t be held responsible for ensuring their votes arrive by November 3, something they have little control over considering delays at the United States Postal Service. Mail-in ballots will be counted providing they were mailed prior that date provided they arrive within six days.
The board changed the mail ballot deadline from Nov. 6, set by the state legislature in June, to Nov. 12, explaining that it acted “to protect lawful North Carolina voters from having their votes thrown out because of mail delays that the Postal Service had explicitly warned the state about.”
Under the change, ballots still had to be marked and mailed by Election Day.
Supreme Court denies Republican attempt to shorten mail-in ballot deadline in North Carolina https://t.co/28RG3FOhsT
— Salon (@Salon) October 29, 2020
