Federal Judicial Center Operational Status:

Due to a lapse in appropriations, the Federal Judicial Center (Center) has ceased all non-excepted activities until funding is restored.

The Center will post any changes in operational status on this web page. Please check back for updates.

You are here

Whether Absentee Ballots in Minnesota Mailed by Election Day but Received Later Should be Counted

Robert Timothy Reagan
July 22, 2023

Carson v. Simon (Nancy E. Brasel, D. Minn. 0:20-cv-2030)
To accommodate increased voting by mail and poorer than normal mail service because of a global infectious pandemic, a consent decree in state court allowed for the counting of ballots received up to a week after election day if postmarked by election day. A federal complaint filed seven weeks later challenged the state-court consent decree. The district judge found that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case. The court of appeals, five days before election day, disagreed and moreover decided that the plaintiffs were entitled to relief.
Subject: Absentee and early voting. Topics: Absentee ballots; Covid-19; interlocutory appeal; intervention; matters for state courts.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.