Judge rejects GOP challenge of Mississippi timeline for counting absentee ballots

Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee that sought to block Mississippi from counting absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days after after it. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. handed down his ruling Sunday. Guirola wrote that Mississippi’s law does not conflict with federal election laws. The suit argued that Mississippi improperly extends the federal election and that, as a result, “timely, valid ballots are diluted by untimely, invalid ballots.” Another federal judge recently dismissed a similar lawsuit in Nevada.