Ali­to warns Supreme Court’s late-arriv­ing bal­lot rul­ing risks under­min­ing con­fi­dence in elec­tions

Jus­tice Samuel Ali­to offered a sharp dis­sent on Mon­day to the Supreme Court’s deci­sion to uphold a Mis­sis­sip­pi law allow­ing late-arriv­ing mail bal­lots to be count­ed, warn­ing that the majority’s rul­ing will like­ly hurt pub­lic con­fi­dence in elec­tions and the sys­tem of government.The high court ruled 5–4 in favor of uphold­ing the Mis­sis­sip­pi law, find­ing that fed­er­al law does not pre­empt state laws allow­ing the count­ing of bal­lots that are post­marked by Elec­tion Day but arrive days lat­er. Ali­to penned the dis­sent and high­light­ed how that deci­sion could under­mine upcom­ing elections.“Not only is today’s deci­sion incon­sis­tent with statu­to­ry text, legal con­text, his­tor­i­cal prac­tice, and prece­dent; it also threat­ens to pro­duce lam­en­ta­ble con­se­quences,” Ali­to wrote. “The majority’s hold­ing spawns a slur­ry of trou­bling elec­tion-law ques­tions and risks fur­ther under­min­ing Amer­i­cans’ con­fi­dence in elec­tion integri­ty.”
Ali­to ques­tioned if states could “elim­i­nate bal­lot-receipt dead­lines entire­ly” because of the …