SCOTUS decision on mail-in ballots could affect states where weather can cause delays

The Supreme Court is considering overturning a Mississippi law that allows counting of mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. That will affect Alaska, where ballots can be weather-delayed.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Twenty-nine states count at least some mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day. Alaska is one of them. KYUK's Samantha Watson reports on a Supreme Court case that could complicate things for voters in some of the state's hardest-to-reach places.

SAMANTHA WATSON: The only way to get to the Bering Sea coastal community of Platinum is by plane, snow machine or boat. There's no roads to the rest of Alaska.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLANE ENGINE DRONING)

WATSON: But for a piece of mail, the journey is more complicated. The village doesn't have its own post office. People have to get across a bay to another town.

LOU ADAMS: When it's frozen, we have to either take the mountain trail or the coast trail, depending on the ice situations.

WATSON: That's Lou Adams, the acting tribal administrator for Platinum Traditional Village Council. She says all 50 of Platinum's residents have to vote absentee-by-mail because the village is too small and remote to have a polling place. That can be difficult because if the weather is bad or the bay is half frozen, residents can go weeks without mail.

ADAMS: The longest may be almost two months 'cause if it's not freezing right and it doesn't freeze right away and it takes longer - so we have to wait on that.

WATSON: People across the state vote by mail for all kinds of reasons, some because of disability or lack of in-person voting. Others might just want to. In the last general election, over 70,000 Alaskans voted absentee-by-mail, and in November, weather can create all kinds of delays. Richard Moses is an Alaska-based campaign and election lawyer who's represented parties involved in ballot recounts and has seen the late arrivals firsthand.

RICHARD MOSES: One of them was from out in western Alaska. It was postmarked prior to Election Day and still arrived seven or eight days after the deadlines.

WATSON: For those inside the U.S., Alaska allows mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive no later than 10 days after a general election. But a Supreme Court decision could change that. The court is currently considering a Republican Party challenge to a Mississippi law that counts mail-in ballots similarly to how Alaska does. In their court brief, Republican Party lawyers said that delayed counting violates federal law that nationally sets an Election Day. Alaska's attorney general filed a brief with the court that did not take a side but did explain the challenges Alaskans face when voting. Moses, who has represented both Democrats and Republicans, says if the law is struck down, it could affect Alaska significantly.

MOSES: We live in a state where diphtheria serum had to be delivered 1,000 miles on a dog sled not that long ago. Any change to the electoral process in any way is going to be groundbreaking here.

WATSON: Michelle Sparck runs the nonpartisan effort called Get Out The Native Vote. They operate under the Alaska Federation of Natives, which filed an amicus brief in the case. They said discounting late-arriving ballots would disenfranchise many Native voters in Alaska and other places, who are often in remote communities.

MICHELLE SPARCK: It's not good to mess with these things, especially during an election year.

WATSON: Under the proposed change, voters could still vote by mail. They'll just have to send their ballots in earlier. But Sparck says a lot can change in the weeks before an election.

SPARCK: When everybody has the luxury until 8 p.m. on Election Day to make their decisions, it's not fair to put the burden on us to vote as soon as possible.

WATSON: If a change went into effect before this November, Alaska political watchers say it could affect the consequential Senate race between Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Dan Sullivan. Peltola faces headwinds in a state that went to Trump by 13 points in the last election. Still, analysts say many of Peltola's supporters live in rural areas that could be impacted by this voting change. In Platinum, counting late-arriving ballots is about more than just election outcomes. It's about the principle of having a vote. Lou Adams again.

ADAMS: It's kind of disheartening. You want your vote to be counted, and that's why you vote - so you can maybe make a difference when they count your ballot.

WATSON: She says the community is hoping to get a polling place. Until then, voting will rely on boats, snow machines and bush planes.

For NPR News, I'm Samantha Watson in Platinum, Alaska.

(SOUNDBITE OF YASMIN WILLIAMS' "JUVENESCENCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.