Watson v. Republican National Committee · ¶45

Plaintiffs and the United States cannot even agree among themselves on how this reconciliation should work. The United States argues that UOCAVA creates an exception to the ballot-receipt deadline set by the election-day statutes. In its view, States may count the absentee ballots of military and overseas voters even if they arrive after election day. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 24. Plaintiffs cannot quite stomach that interpretation, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 79–80, 85; accord, post, at 15–16, and for good reason: UOCAVA is not worded like an exception. It does not authorize States to create ballot-receipt deadlines; rather, it presumes that States have that authority already. See, e.g., 52 U. S. C. §20303(b)(3) (federal absentee ballots “shall not be counted” if a State receives the voter’s state absentee ballot by “the deadline for receipt of [that] ballot under State law”).

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