Under-the-radar Supreme Court case could end Californias delayed election counts for good

WASHINGTON — A pending case at the US Supreme Court could put an end to delayed ballot counts — like in the recent Los Angeles mayor’s race in California — that have caused voters to lose confidence in elections, according to Republicans.The high court in March heard oral arguments in Watson v.Republican National Committee, a Mississippi case that may result in a ruling stopping the practice of counting mail-in ballots that arrive up to five days after an election date.It’s one of at least 14 states, along with California, New York and Texas, as well as the District of Columbia, with laws that allow for late ballots so long as envelopes are postmarked by Election Day.

Around 30 states have some sort of grace period for absentee ballots as well, letting military or US citizens abroad cast their votes.That grace period for mail ballots, which the RNC has argued is unconstitutional, is one of the reasons that Los Angeles residents still don’t know, nearly a week after, whether candidates Spencer Pratt or Nithya Raman will advance to a runoff contest in November against incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.“What’s happening in California is a Democrat failure on full display,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told The Post. “Nearly a week after the primary, it is completely unacceptable ballots are still being counted.That’s why the RNC is aggressively fighting in the Supreme Court to stop ballots received after Election Day from being counted.

Americans deserve timely election results they can trust.”At issue is whether a federal statute defining Election Day as the Tuesday “after the first Monday in November” should apply to mail-in ballots that arrive later, even if the envelopes are postmarked appropriately.Most Americans support vote-by-mail, though GOP backing for absentee ballots has declined in the last decade, according to surveys conducted by Pew Research.The RNC even launched a tracking website to record how long it will take for all...