Mail-in Voting: What's the Real Issue?

The Supreme Court is looking into a case brought by the Republican National Committee against Mississippi. The issue is about counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. The RNC claims that counting these ballots undermines trust in elections. But is that really the case? The RNC says they want to enforce safeguards for mail-in voting. But many people think the real reason is different. Some believe it's because former President Trump lost the 2020 election and keeps claiming there was fraud. He has been saying this despite lots of evidence showing that mail-in voting is secure. Over the past 20 years, every state has put in place rules to make mail-in voting safe and reliable. Sometimes, ballots don't get counted on time. This is often because the postal service, which has had its funding cut, doesn't deliver them in time. But mail-in voting is still important for many people. This includes those with disabilities, people in rural areas, and Americans living overseas. Trump has been trying to stop mail-in voting since 2016. He lost Colorado to Hillary Clinton when that state started using all-mail elections. Since then, he has spread many conspiracy theories about vote fraud. Every time his claims are proven wrong, he comes up with new ones. In March, Trump signed an order pressuring states to reject mail-in ballots received after Election Day. This order was blocked by a federal court, but the lawsuit gives the Trump administration another chance to make it harder for people to vote by mail. This could disenfranchise millions of voters, many of whom are Republicans. At least sixteen states, including Texas and Ohio, allow ballots to arrive after Election Day as long as they were postmarked on time. The RNC wants the court to decide that ballots are only legitimate if they arrive by Election Day. Mississippi argues that the election day is when voters make their choices, not when ballots must be counted. The irony is that Republicans have long encouraged their voters to use mail-in ballots. This helped them win elections for years. Even in 2020, when Trump was criticizing vote-by-mail, the Florida GOP was promoting it as a safe option during the pandemic. Now, the Republican Party is caught between the truth and Trump's claims. The Department of Justice, which had previously sided with Mississippi, is now supporting the RNC's lawsuit. If the court sides with the RNC, it could cause chaos in elections across the country.