A federal appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit that questions Mississippi’s method of processing mailed absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but can arrive up to five days later.
As it stands, this ruling is unlikely to impact the upcoming election on November 5. The court stated that their decision will not be sent back to a lower court until a week after the deadline for appealing their ruling has passed, which typically takes at least two weeks. This timeline means any changes resulting from the ruling would take effect well after Election Day.
Richard Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, criticized the appeals court’s ruling on his blog, labeling it as an “outlandish opinion” and adding that similar cases have been dismissed by other courts.
On Friday, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous July ruling by U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who had rejected the challenges brought forth against Mississippi’s election law by the Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, among others. The appeals court has now remanded the case back to Guirola for further consideration, with a possibility that it may eventually reach the Supreme Court.
In the aftermath of the 2020 elections, where they faced multiple rebukes from judges, Republicans have initiated more than 100 lawsuits contesting various elements of the voting process.
While the overall impact of this case may be limited in deeply Republican Mississippi, it holds the potential to influence voting procedures in more contested states.