Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a66_new_m6io.pdf
Page Number: 24.0

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2020) 

1 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 20A66 
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DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE, ET AL. v. 
WISCONSIN STATE LEGISLATURE, ET AL. 

ON APPLICATION TO VACATE STAY 

[October 26, 2020] 

  JUSTICE  KAGAN,  with  whom  JUSTICE  BREYER  and 
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR join, dissenting. 
  In April, residents of Wisconsin voted in presidential pri-
maries.    That  election  was  one  of  the  first  during  the 
COVID–19  pandemic,  which  has  turned  in-person  voting 
(with  its  often-long  lines,  touch  screens,  and  enclosed 
booths)  into  a  health  risk,  especially  for  older  and  less 
healthy  Americans.    Given  these  emergency  conditions,  a 
district  judge  directed  the  State to  accept  mail  ballots re-
ceived in the six days after the polls closed.  That extension 
of Wisconsin’s ballot-receipt deadline ensured that COVID-
related delays in the delivery and processing of mail ballots 
would  not  disenfranchise  citizens  fearful  of  voting  in  per-
son.    Because  of  the  court’s  ruling,  state  officials  counted 
80,000  ballots—about  five  percent  of  the  total  cast—that 
were postmarked by Election Day but would have been dis-
carded for arriving a few days later.  
  Today,  millions  of  Wisconsin  citizens  are  preparing  to 
vote in the November election.  But COVID is not over.  In 
Wisconsin,  the  pandemic  is  much  worse—more  than  20 
times  worse,  by  one  measure—than  it  was  in  the  spring: 
The State’s health department now reports a weekly aver-
age of 3,879 cases per day, compared to 175 per day when 
the April election took place.  See Wisconsin Department of 
Health  Services,  COVID–19:  Wisconsin  Cases  (Oct.  26, 
2020), www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/cases.htm.  Indeed,