Federal judges order post-Election Day Minnestoa ballots to be held

[RandySF]

A federal court sided Thursday with a GOP challenge to Minnesota’s extended deadline for receiving absentee ballots after Election Day, imperiling a state rule that would count mail-in ballots received up to a week after Tuesday’s election.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges ordered that all mail-in ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day be set aside, setting the stage for a potential legal battle after the election. But the order stopped short of a final determination on the validity of the post-Election Day ballots.

The ruling came in a case brought by Minnesota GOP presidential electors challenging a state rule allowing election officials to count ballots received until Nov. 10, as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3. It is one of several Republican challenges to extended deadlines that were adopted in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina in response to concerns about the pandemic and potential mail delays.

The Eighth Circuit opinion concluded that state and federal law superseded the state court-approved extension.

“There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution,” the panel wrote.



https://www.startribune.com/post-election-day-ballots-to-be-separated-federal-judges-order/572917391/

[FeelingBlue]

1. Here it comes. nt

[dflprincess]

2. Traditionally the states have been allowed to run elections

as they see fit. Now we have two Republican appointed judges in the 8th Circuit deciding they know better. All it does is signal how desperate their party is to keep votes from being counted.