Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19a1016_o759.pdf
Page Number: 7

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

3 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

3.  Second, the District Court extended the deadline for elec-
tion officials to receive completed absentee ballots.  Previ-
ously, Wisconsin law required that absentee ballots be re-
ceived  by  8  p.m.  on  election  day,  April  7;  under  the 
preliminary injunction, the ballots would be accepted until 
4  p.m. on  April  13, regardless of the  postmark  date.  The 
District Court also enjoined members of the Elections Com-
mission and election inspectors from releasing any report of 
polling  results  before  the  new  absentee-voting  deadline, 
April 13. 

Although the members of the Wisconsin Elections Com-
mission  did  not  challenge  the  preliminary  injunction,  the 
intervening defendants applied to the Seventh Circuit for a 
partial stay.  Of the twofold remedy just described, the stay 
applicants challenged only the second aspect, the extension 
of the deadline for returning absentee ballots.  On April 3, 
the Seventh Circuit declined to modify the absentee-ballot 
deadline.  The same applicants then sought a partial stay 
in this Court, which the Court today grants. 

II 
A 

The  Court’s order requires absentee voters to postmark 
their ballots by election day, April 7—i.e., tomorrow—even 
if they did not receive their ballots by that date.  That is a 
novel requirement.  Recall that absentee ballots were orig-
inally  due  back  to  election  officials  on  April  7,  which  the 
District Court extended to April 13.  Neither of those dead-
lines carried a postmark-by requirement. 

While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the 
Court’s order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchise-
ment.  A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she 
has not received.  Yet tens of thousands of voters who timely 
requested  ballots  are  unlikely to  receive  them  by  April  7, 
the  Court’s  postmark  deadline.  Rising  concern  about  the 
COVID–19 pandemic has caused a late surge in absentee-