{"id":397103,"date":"2026-07-13T22:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397103\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:20:08","slug":"california-should-require-mail-in-ballots-to-arrive-by-election-day-katherine-t-bennett-in-california-post-american-legislative-exchange-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397103\/","title":{"rendered":"California Should Require Mail-In Ballots to Arrive by Election Day: Katherine T. Bennett in California Post – American Legislative Exchange Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cStates have an obligation to strengthen election confidence by requiring mail-in ballots to be received no later than the close of polls on Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her new op-ed for California Post<\/a>, Process and Procedures Task Force Director Katherine T. Bennett examined the recent Supreme Court Watson v. RNC decision and explained why states like California should require all mailed ballots to be received by the close of polls on Election Day.<\/p>\n

California should change its laws to require ballots to arrive by\u00a0Election Day<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 even if the Supreme Court says it doesn\u2019t have to do so.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s leaders celebrated the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in\u00a0Watson v. RNC<\/a>\u00a0to allow states to accept ballots that arrive late, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.<\/p>\n

But whether a\u00a0law is constitutional<\/a>\u00a0is a separate question from whether it is the best policy.<\/p>\n

As Justice Samuel Alito\u00a0made clear in his dissent<\/a>, the majority\u2019s decision creates uncertainty at a time when public confidence in election security is low.<\/p>\n

California still counts ballots weeks after Election Day, a stark example of how late ballot deadlines can drag out elections and prolong disputes, further eroding public trust in our institutions. That should concern anyone who believes elections should be transparent, orderly and reliable.<\/p>\n

When ballots continue to arrive after polls close, the public is asked to accept a process that declares results before ballots have been received and counted. Results can shift long after Election Day, headlines can change, and confidence in a fair process can deteriorate. Even when the rules are lawful, the appearance of an election that can take days to conclude invites suspicion and frustration.<\/p>\n

Read the full opinion editorial here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cStates have an obligation to strengthen election confidence by requiring mail-in ballots to be received no later than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-397103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}