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DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE v. WISCONSIN 

STATE LEGISLATURE 
KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

consin’s legislature has not done so, unlike the South Caro-
lina legislature in Andino, for example.  But the Wisconsin 
State Legislature’s decision not to modify its election rules 
in light of the pandemic is itself a policy judgment worthy 
of the same judicial deference that this Court afforded the 
South Carolina legislature in Andino, ante, p. ___.  In short, 
state  legislatures,  not  federal  courts,  primarily  decide 
whether and how to adjust election rules in light of the pan-
demic.  
  Third, the District Court did not sufficiently appreciate 
the significance of election deadlines.  This Court has long 
recognized that a State’s reasonable deadlines for register-
ing to vote, requesting absentee ballots, submitting absen-
tee ballots, and voting in person generally raise no federal 
constitutional  issues  under  the  traditional  Anderson-Bur-
dick balancing test.  See Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U. S. 
780 (1983); Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U. S. 428 (1992). 
  To state the obvious, a State cannot conduct an election 
without deadlines.   It  follows  that  the  right to  vote  is  not 
substantially burdened by a requirement that voters “act in 
a timely fashion if they wish to express their views in the 
voting  booth.”    Burdick,  504  U. S.,  at  438.    For  the  same 
reason, the right to vote is not substantially burdened by a 
requirement that voters act in a timely fashion if they wish 
to cast an absentee ballot.  Either way, voters need to vote 
on time.  A deadline is not unconstitutional merely because 
of voters’ “own failure to take timely steps” to ensure their 
franchise.  Rosario v. Rockefeller, 410 U. S. 752, 758 (1973).  
Voters who, for example, show up to vote at midnight after 
the polls close on election night do not have a right to de-
mand that the State nonetheless count their votes.  Voters 
who submit their absentee ballots after the State’s deadline 
similarly do not have a right to demand that the State count 
their votes. 
  For important reasons, most States, including Wisconsin, 
require absentee ballots to be received by election day, not