The Supreme Court decision on Monday barred the counting of mail-in ballots in Wisconsin that arrive after Election Day. That was probably the right decision. State do have the rights to run their elections as they please to a large degree — tie goes to the state. But Kavanaughs opinion is ridiculous and disturbing.
He wrote that Election Day mail-in deadlines were devised “to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after Election Day and potentially flip the results of an election.”
Justice Kagan had it right: “There are no results to ‘flip’ until all valid votes are counted.” Until all votes are counted, there are no results. Only projections and predictions. That is why states don’t certify their election results for a couple weeks after Election Day.
If projections and predictions legally matter, than Hillary Clinton should be president. She was projected and predicted to win. There is no qualitative difference between refusing to count some ballots and all ballots.