Supreme Court Allows Extended Deadline for Mail-in Ballots
North Carolina mail ballots that arrive by Nov. 12 and aren’t postmarked after Election Day will be accepted.
The Supreme Court on Thursday, October 29, 2020 denied a Republican bid to block a mail-ballot extension in North Carolina, a day after rejecting a similar GOP effort in the key battleground state.
The court’s three most conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito — would have granted the Republican request. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the bench Tuesday, took no part in considering the case.
The voting breakdown mirrored that of a similar Wednesday night ruling in which the court rejected an effort by the Trump campaign and North Carolina Republicans to reverse a six-day mail ballot due date extension.
Together, the two rulings represent a major blow for President Trump and his GOP allies. North Carolina Republicans had asked the justices to effectively undo a state court-approved agreement to push back the deadline for the receipt of mail ballots to accommodate voters during the pandemic.
