The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just delivered a win for election integrity and a blow to the Democrat rigging machine, a sign of hope not long before Election Day 2024.
On Oct. 25, the Fifth Circuit Court ruling in Republican National Committee v. Wetzel reversed a former judgment and affirmed that Mississippi’s statute allowing the state to receive ballots up to five days after federal Election Day is not consistent with the Constitution or federal law. It is not even consistent with Mississippi’s own law, the ruling states! Indeed, the ruling is a hopeful sign coming just after the discouraging news that a Biden-appointed judge ordered Virginia to reinstate non-citizens on voter rolls. The fight for election integrity is challenging but most certainly not doomed.
“Congress statutorily designated a singular ‘day for the election’ of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors. Text, precedent, and historical practice confirm this ‘day for the election’ is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials,” the ruling announces. “Because Mississippi’s statute allows ballot receipt up to five days after the federal election day, it is preempted by federal law. We reverse the district court’s contrary judgment and remand for further proceedings.”
A ballot is “cast,” the ruling explains, “when the State takes custody of it.” While ballots might be counted after Election Day, “the result is fixed when all of the ballots are received and the proverbial ballot box is closed,” namely Election Day. Thus “the election concludes when the final ballots are received and the electorate, not the individual selector, has chosen.”
Related: Shameless Election Rigging in Plain Sight — Don't Fall for It
Mississippi’s own law confirms and agrees with this, the ruling adds. Ultimately, the idea that the state can and should receive ballots days after the federal Election Day flies in the face of both federal and state laws.
The ruling also went in-depth on the constitutional grounds for ruling in the RNC’s favor. For instance:
‘The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors’ for President… Pursuant to the Electors Clause, the Second Congress mandated that States appoint presidential electors within a 34-day period ‘preceding the first Wednesday in December in every fourth year…Some States responded by adopting multi-day voting periods — but this caused election fraud, delay, and other problems… So Congress intervened in 1845, fixing a ‘uniform time’ for appointing presidential electors on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
The ruling further cites the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution to reinforce the argument:
‘The Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.’… In the early Republic, congressional elections occurred at varying times, providing some States with an ‘undue advantage’… Congress scheduled all House elections to occur on the presidential Election Day… The upshot: These statutes ‘mandate[] holding all elections for Congress and the Presidency on a single day throughout the Union.’
As noted above, the ruling also explains why the state must in fact receive ballots by Election Day for them to be considered validly cast. If only more courts and judges based their decisions on what the Constitution says, not on whatever political pressures leftist radicals are currently bringing to bear.
Hopefully, this ruling will secure elections not just in Mississippi, but provide a legal basis for securing elections in other states too.
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