Republican Congressmember Darrell Issa sued California on Thursday in an attempt to block the state from counting future mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, arguing that “late-arriving (vote-by-mail) ballots tend to favor Democratic candidates and provide an unfair electoral advantage for opponents of Republican congressional incumbents.” The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Issa by the politically conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, alleges that California is violating federal election laws by allowing seven extra days for receipt of mailed-in ballots. California election law allows such ballots to be received and counted as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. “Under the federal Election Day statutes, a qualified ballot for federal office is not a legally cast vote unless and until it is received by an election official on or before Election Day,” the lawsuit contends. The suit named Secretary of State Shirley Weber as the defendant. “I will vigorously defend California’s common sense election laws and safeguard every voter’s right to have their ballot counted,” Weber responded in a statement. Issa’s lawsuit seeks to turn the clock back a decade on California’s election laws, which previously mandated that mailed-in ballots had to be received on or before Election Day. The state Legislature passed a law in 2014 that extended the deadline by three days, as long as the ballots were postmarked on or before Election Day. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 General Election, when the state mailed ballots to every eligible voter regardless of whether they requested one. It turned out to be a resounding success, with better than 80% turnout among registered voters. Of the 17.8 million Californians who voted that year, more than 15.4 million mailed in their ballots. Mail-in ballots sit in a tray once they have been sorted through a machine at San Diego Registrar of Voters in San Diego on Oct. 20, 2022. (Adriana Heldiz / The San Diego Union-Tribune) The next year, the state Legislature passed another law to extend the receipt deadline to seven days for ballots postmarked on or before Election Day. Issa and Judicial Watch also filed an election lawsuit in 2020, arguing that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order directing state officials to mail every voter a ballot was unlawful. The plaintiffs dropped the suit when the state Legislature passed its own such law, nullifying the executive order. In the suit filed Thursday, Issa and Judicial Watch argued that late-arriving mailed-in ballots favored Democrats, citing congressional races last year in Orange County and the San Joaquin Valley in which Democrats narrowly defeated Republican incumbents, reportedly on the strength of mailed-in ballots arriving after Election Day. “Based on these results … Republicans receive a lower proportion of votes cast in late-arriving (vote-by-mail) ballots compared to timely-cast ballots,” the lawsuit contends. In Orange County, Derek Tran defeated incumbent Michelle Steel by roughly 600 votes in a race that was not called by the Associated Press until Nov. 27, more than three weeks after Election Day. In the San Joaquin Valley, Adam Gray defeated John Duarte by fewer than 200 votes in a race not decided until Dec. 3, the final day of ballot counting in California. Gray and Duarte’s roles were reversed in 2022, however, when the Republican defeated the Democrat by 564 votes in a race that was not finalized until early December. Over the past three years, Judicial Watch has filed similar lawsuits across the country arguing that state laws allowing receipt of mailed-in ballots after Election Day violate federal law. Almost every judge who has heard such arguments has disagreed and found that states can set their own deadlines. The notable exception occurred in October in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, where a three-judge panel made up entirely of judges appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term ruled that federal law preempts the Mississippi statute that extended the deadline for receipt of mailed-in ballots by five days. Several groups, including those advocating for military veterans, the elderly and disabled people, have intervened in that case and requested that a larger panel of judges from the 5th Circuit reconsider the decision. “That law is critical to protecting the voting rights of members of the Armed Services when stationed away from home, whose ballots may otherwise arrive too late to be counted,” the groups wrote in their petition for a rehearing, which is still pending. Issa’s lawsuit filed Thursday was assigned to U.S. District Judge Andrew Schopler, an appointee of former President Joe Biden. ...read more read less