Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a66_new_m6io.pdf
Page Number: 26.0

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

3 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

election.1)    In  the  court’s  view,  the  discarding  of  so  many 
properly  cast  ballots  would  severely  burden  the  constitu-
tional right to vote.  The fit remedy was to create a six-day 
grace period, to allow those ballots a little extra time to ar-
rive in the face of unprecedented administrative and deliv-
ery delays.  

 But  a  court  of  appeals  halted  the district  court’s order, 
and today this Court leaves that stay in place.  I respectfully 
dissent  because  the  Court’s  decision  will  disenfranchise 
large numbers of responsible voters in the midst of hazard-
ous pandemic conditions. 

I 
  Start with this fact: The court of appeals did not dispute 
any of the district court’s careful findings about the effect of 
COVID on voting in Wisconsin.  The appellate court did not 
question the health risks—now increasing daily—of in-per-
son  voting  in  the  State,  especially  to  senior  citizens  and 
those with  some pre-existing  conditions.2    It  did  not deny 
that, because of those dangers, state election offices will be 
swamped until the end of October by timely mail-ballot ap-
plications.  It did not contest that backlogs in those offices, 
combined with unusual delays in mail delivery, will prevent 
tens  of  thousands  of  Wisconsinites—through  no  fault  of 
their own—from successfully casting a mail ballot.  Nor did 
the appellate court express doubt that disenfranchisement 
of that kind, and on that scale, imposes a severe burden on 
the  right  to  vote.    See  generally  Burdick  v.  Takushi,  504 

—————— 

1 See U. S. Election Assistance Commission, 2016 Election Administra-

tion and Voting Survey 25. 

2 See C. Cotti, B. Engelhardt, J. Foster, E. Nesson, & P. Niakamp, The 
Relationship Between In-Person Voting and COVID–19: Evidence From 
the Wisconsin Primary, NBER Working Paper No. 27187, p. 11 (rev. Oct. 
2020)  (“Across  all  models,  we  find  an  increase  in  the  positive  share  of 
COVID–19 cases in the weeks following the election in counties that had 
more in-person votes per voting location, all else equal”).