Watson v. Republican National Committee · ¶38

When it comes to the ordinary usage of the word “election,” there is no dispute. An “election” is “[t]he act of choosing a person to fill an office.” Brief for Respondent Libertarian Party of Mississippi 21 (internal quotation marks omitted); accord, post, at 3 (“agree[ing]” that an election is “the expression of the electorate’s choice” (internal quotation marks omitted)); Brief for Republican Respondents 17– 18 (similar). Still, both the dissent and plaintiffs argue that choice requires more than ballot casting. According to the dissent, ballot receipt is necessary because it renders the electorate’s choice “authoritative.” Post, at 1–2, 4. But the dissent never says what “authoritative” means, much less why ballot receipt carries this transformative power. Plaintiffs, for their part, suggest that ballot receipt is significant because it marks the point at which we can say “who won.”…

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