Last week Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge joined nine other state Attorneys General in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The amicus brief is part of a lawsuit over the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s judgment that allowed ballots in the presidential election to be received by mail three days after Election Day in that state.
[T]he Pennsylvania Supreme Court overstepped its authority and encroached on the authority of the legislature in ruling that ballots received three days after election can be accepted, including ballots with an illegible postmark or no postmark at all. Second, that voting by mail can create risks of voter fraud, including in Pennsylvania. And lastly, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision exacerbated these risks of absentee ballot fraud.
The brief goes on to argue,
In a typical Presidential election, it is often hard to predict in advance whether the outcome will be close in any particular State, and whether that State’s decision will affect the outcome of the election. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in this case created a window of time for unscrupulous actors to wait and see until after Election Day whether the outcome would be close enough—both in Pennsylvania, and in the nation as a whole—to make attempting fraud worthwhile.
The brief closes by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s judgment.
Missouri’s attorney general filed the brief. State A.G.s from Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Florida signed it as well.
