Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a66_new_m6io.pdf
Page Number: 22.0

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

17 

KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

and  arrive  too  late  to  be  counted.2    Indeed,  in  2012  and 
2016, the States rejected more than 70,000 ballots in each 
election  because  the  ballots  missed  the  deadlines.    U. S. 
Election  Assistance  Commission,  2012  Election  Admin-
istration and Voting Survey 42 (2013); U. S. Election Assis-
tance Commission, 2016 Election Administration and Vot-
ing Survey 11, 25 (2017).  But moving a deadline would not 
prevent ballots from arriving after the newly minted dead-
line any more than moving first base would mean no more 
close plays.  And more to the point, the fact that some bal-
lots will be late in any system with deadlines does not make 
Wisconsin’s widely used deadline facially unconstitutional.  
See Crawford, 553 U. S., at 202–203.   
  Put  another  way,  the  relevant  question  is  not  whether 
any voter would ever miss the deadlines.  After all, in every 
deadline case, the answer would always be yes, and no elec-
tion deadline would ever be permissible.  The proper ques-
tion under the Constitution is whether the deadline is rea-
sonable  under  the circumstances.   See  Rosario,  410  U. S., 
at 760.  Again, Wisconsin’s deadline is the same as that in 
about 30 other States for the November election and is rea-
sonable, for the reasons I have explained. 
  In any event, if a Wisconsin voter does not receive an ab-
sentee ballot in time to cast it, the voter still has the option 
of voting in person.  And Wisconsin, like many other States, 
demonstrated  in  the  April  and  August  primary  elections 
that it can run an in-person election in a way that is rea-
sonably  safe  for  Wisconsin  voters,  with  socially  distanced 
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2 In Wisconsin, a voter can track his or her ballot online.  MyVote Wis-
consin, Track My Ballot, https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/TrackMyBallot.  If 
a voter is concerned that the ballot may not be received in time, the voter 
can cancel the absentee ballot and request a new one or vote in person, 
as long as the voter meets the deadlines set by the municipality for doing 
so,  which  typically  fall  a  few  days  before  election  day.    Memorandum 
from M. Wolfe, Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, to 
Wisconsin County Clerks et al. (Oct. 19, 2020) (online source archived at 
www.supremecourt.gov).