On June 6, the Mississippi Secretary of State asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Watson v Republican National Committee, 24-1260. The issue is whether the 1872 federal law telling states to hold congressional elections in the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November of even-numbered years means that all ballots must be received by that date. Here is the cert petition.

In October 2024 the Fifth Circuit had ruled that the 1872 federal law setting congressional election day means that all ballots must be received by election officials by that day. No other circuit ever came to that conclusion, although there haven’t been many cases. The Secretary of State’s petition to the court says if the Fifth Circuit is correct, then the laws of 29 other states are also void.

The current Mississippi law, which the Fifth Circuit invalidated, says absentee postal ballots must be postmarked by election day, but they are valid if they are received in the elections office by five business days after the election.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already accepted a related case, from Illinois. That case, Bost v Illinois State Board of Elections, 24-568, will probably be argued near the end of 2025. But in that case, the lower court had not only upheld the Illinois law that allows absentee ballots to arrive a few days after election day; it also said the plaintiffs don’t even have standing to raise the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court will only decide the standing issue, not the timing issue.

In the Mississippi case, the U.S. District Court had ruled that the Republican and Libertarian Parties do have standing, but that the Mississippi law does not conflict with the 1872 law.

On June 8, the Louisiana legislature passed HB 342. It increases filing fees for statewide state office from $750 to $3,500 for U.S. Senator; $2,500 for statewide state office; and $1,500 for U.S. House.

However, the bill decreases the number of signatures in lieu of the filing fee. Statewide office drops from 5,000 signatures to 2,500 signatures. U.S. House drops from 1,000 signatures to 750, but only for the primary.

Starting in 2026, Louisiana uses partisan nominations for congress, but continues the old system of no party nominees for state and local office. Oddly, the bill does not change any filing fees or petition requirements for congressional candidates who are not running in a party primary. This may have been an oversight. It would be strange for a state to have different filing fee amounts (for the same office) in the primary, compared to the general election.

On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Virginia state government to derail a new type of attack on the state’s ban on ex-felon voting. In 1870, when Congress passed a bill readmitting Virginia to the union, it included a provision that Virginia’s Constitution “must never be changed so as to deprive any citizen or group of citizens the right to vote”, except that it said Virginia could continue to bar voting by persons who had committed a common law felony.

Back in 1870, there were no drug laws. Two Virginia voters, who had been convicted of a drug felony, brought a federal lawsuit saying that because their crimes were not felonies in 1870, therefore under the terms of the readmission act, Virginia could not deprive them of the ability to vote. The lower courts agreed to let the case move forward. Virginia tried to get the U.S. Supreme Court to short-circuit the lawsuit, saying that the 1870 readmission law cannot be enforced by a lawsuit brought by individuals. But the U.S. Supreme Court refused Virginia’s request.

If the lawsuit eventually wins, similar lawsuits will probably be brought against several other southern states whose re-admission law had a similar provision. The case is O’Bannon v King, 24-964.