Democratic National Committee v. Wisconsin State Legislature

Wisconsin’s election code required absentee ballots to arrive to state election officials no later than election day. Wisconsin retained that deadline for the November 2020 general election, even though the COVID-19 pandemic had led to a substantial increase in absentee-ballot requests that the state was struggling to timely fill. Roughly 50 percent of the state’s registered voters had asked for absentee ballots, and voters could continue to request absentee ballots until five days before election day. In an action brought by the Democratic National Committee (plaintiff) against the Wisconsin state legislature (defendant), a federal district court ordered that Wisconsin must permit absentee ballots to be received up to six days after election day. The court found that Wisconsin officials were having difficulty fulfilling the ballot requests and that mail delivery was unusually slow in the state. As a result, it took approximately two weeks for a ballot to be sent from the state to the voter and be returned back to election officials, even if the voter filled out the ballot immediately on receipt. The court further found that many people might not even receive their ballots by election day. The court estimated that 100,000 Wisconsin voters might not have their votes counted based on the delays and ordered the six-day extension to ensure that all properly cast ballots could be received and counted. The Seventh Circuit stayed the district court’s order, and the Democratic National Committee asked the United States Supreme Court to vacate the stay.