Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19a1016_o759.pdf
Page Number: 3.0

Cite as:  589 U. S. ____ (2020) 

3 

Per Curiam 

allowing  absentee  ballots  mailed  and  postmarked  after
election day to be counted.  And all of that further under-
scores the wisdom of the Purcell principle, which seeks to 
avoid this kind of judicially created confusion.

The dissent is quite wrong on several points.  First, the 
dissent entirely disregards the critical point that the plain-
tiffs themselves did not ask for this additional relief in their 
preliminary  injunction  motions.    Second,  the  dissent  con-
tends that this Court should not intervene at this late date. 
The Court would prefer not to do so, but when a lower court
intervenes and alters the election rules so close to the elec-
tion date, our precedents indicate that this Court, as appro-
priate, should correct that error.  Third, the dissent refers 
to voters who have not yet received their absentee ballots. 
But even in an ordinary election, voters who request an ab-
sentee ballot at the deadline for requesting ballots (which
was this past Friday in this case) will usually receive their 
ballots on the day before or day of the election, which in this 
case  would  be  today  or  tomorrow.  The  plaintiffs  put  for-
ward no probative evidence in the District Court that these
voters  here  would  be  in  a  substantially  different  position
from  late-requesting  voters  in  other  Wisconsin  elections 
with respect to the timing of their receipt of absentee bal-
lots.  In that regard, it bears mention that absentee voting
has been underway for many weeks, and 1.2 million Wis-
consin voters have requested and have been sent their ab-
sentee ballots, which is about five times the number of ab-
sentee  ballots  requested  in  the  2016  spring  election.
Fourth, the dissent’s rhetoric is entirely misplaced and com-
pletely overlooks the fact that the deadline for receiving bal-
lots was already extended to accommodate Wisconsin vot-
ers, from April 7 to April 13.  Again, that extension has the 
effect  of  extending  the  date  for  a  voter  to  mail  the  ballot 
from, in effect, Saturday, April 4, to Tuesday, April 7.  That 
extension was designed to ensure that the voters of Wiscon-
sin can cast their ballots and have their votes count.  That