Minnesota Court Rules Ballots Must Arrive by Election Day to Be Counted
Federal Court Sides with Democrats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina Cases
[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] In the U.S. presidential election, as mail-in voting surges, disputes over the timing of ballot arrivals and the deadline for counting votes continue. President Donald Trump's camp insists on limiting the deadline for counting mail-in ballots, which favors Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, while the Democrats are engaged in intense legal battles to extend the counting deadline even slightly.
According to the Washington Post on the 29th (local time), the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Minnesota ruled that mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day on November 3rd must be excluded from the count. Initially, Minnesota planned to count mail-in ballots that arrived within a week after Election Day.
Following the court ruling, Minnesota can only count ballots that arrived before 3 p.m. on Election Day. Prior to the ruling, the Minnesota Secretary of State indicated an intention to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if they lost, leaving the possibility of disputes continuing until just before the election.
After this ruling, the Democrats went into emergency mode. Amy Klobuchar (Democrat), a Minnesota senator, urged Democratic supporters to stop voting by mail. Meanwhile, Jennifer Carnahan, chairwoman of the Minnesota Republican Party, welcomed the court's decision.
Earlier, the Trump campaign and the Minnesota Republican Party filed a petition asking the state Supreme Court to order that all mail-in ballots received after Election Day, November 3rd, be separated. They stated, "If mail-in ballots are not separated, the election results could be distorted by illegal and untimely mail-in votes," adding, "It may be impossible for the court to correct this."
The governor of Minnesota is a Democrat. This means that President Trump's side is blocking efforts to conduct the counting process in a way favorable to the Democrats.
The extension of the mail-in ballot counting deadline has emerged as a contentious issue in key battleground states. On the 28th, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed extensions for counting mail-in ballots in the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
On the same day, the Supreme Court again rejected the Trump campaign's request to limit the extension of the mail-in ballot counting deadline in North Carolina. Considering that Pennsylvania and North Carolina are fiercely contested battleground states, this ruling is unfavorable to the Republicans but favorable to the Democrats. Pennsylvania, with 20 electoral votes at stake, is a key battleground where Biden is leading, and President Trump is focusing his final offensive. Trump is scheduled to campaign there on October 31st, three days before the election.
Since the extension of the mail-in ballot counting deadline affects vote counts, both Democrats and Republicans are closely monitoring every decision by the Supreme Court.
The political media outlet The Hill described it as "the most intense legal battle in U.S. history."
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