Watson v. Republican National Committee · ¶123

Likewise, it is not difficult to foresee the types of fraught situations that the counting of late mail-in ballots may lead to. Suppose that the outcome in a close Presidential election hangs on the final vote in a State that allows officials to count mail-in ballots received up until two days before its Presidential electors must meet to submit their votes. And suppose that, when all the ballots cast in person are counted by the morning after the election, one of the candidates is ahead by 15,000 votes. As the mail-in ballots arrive and are counted, that lead alternatingly dwindles and swells. By Thanksgiving, the lead of the candidate who has been ahead since election day dips to just 1,500 votes. This figure holds until a few days before the State’s electors need to vote, when one last tranche of mail-in ballots puts the opposing candidate in the lead by, say, 87 votes.

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