By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) – A divided U.S. appeals court on Thursday blocked a federal judge’s ruling that would have allowed Wisconsin election officials to count absentee ballots that arrive up to six days after the Nov. 3 presidential election, as mail-in voting surges amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to put the changes on hold until the case is fully resolved likely means that ballots arriving after Nov. 3 will be disqualified. The appellate ruling also blocked a week-long extension of the state’s online and mail-in registration deadline.
Wisconsin is one of a handful of battleground states that will decide the contest between Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The pandemic has prompted an unprecedented wave of election-related litigation between the parties.
In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Wisconsin Republican legislative leaders that it was too close to Election Day to make significant changes and that alterations were better left to elected officials, rather than the judiciary.
“If the judge had issued an order in May based on April’s experience, it could not be called untimely,” the majority wrote. “By waiting until September, however, the district court acted too close to the election.”
The Democratic National Committee, which had sought the accommodations, could appeal the decision, either to the full 7th Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court. A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican legislative leaders did not immediately comment on the ruling.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that mail-in voting, a common feature of U.S. elections, will lead to massive voter fraud without evidence. Elections experts say voter fraud is exceedingly rare.
In a scathing dissent, Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner called the decision a “travesty” and warned that “thousands” of Wisconsinites would lose their right to vote.
“In the United States of America, a beacon of liberty founded on the right of the people to rule themselves, no citizen should have to choose between her health and her right to vote,” wrote Rovner, who like the other two judges was appointed by a Republican president.
“Good luck and G-d bless, Wisconsin,” Rovner concluded. “You are going to need it.”
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Howard Goller)
