VT Demands Kavanaugh Correct His Misstatement Of VT Law In Voting Rights Opinion
JakeThomas
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos has demanded that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh correct the record after making an erroneous claim in his concurrence earlier this week about the state’s voting procedures, Law & Crime reports.
- Kavanaugh’s error came in his concurring opinion for the case Democratic National Committee v. Wisconsin State Legislature, in which he “joined his conservative colleagues to pare back Wisconsin’s mail-in ballot deadline–meaning the state can only count mail-in ballots that arrive by Election Day.”
- Condos wrote to Supreme Court Clerk Scott Harris on Wednesday: “I write in the hope of correcting the record with respect to an Oct. 26 opinion. On page 5 of his opinion, Justice Kavanaugh stated, ‘Vermont, by contrast, ha[s] decided not to make changes to their ordinary election rules, including to the election-day deadline for receipt of absentee ballots.'”
- Kavanaugh’s statement was not true, Condos said. The letter explained:
First, beginning on Sept. 18, Vermont mailed every active registered voter a ballot and a prepaid return envelope. Second, given that more Vermonters are voting early and by mail than in a typical election year, I authorized Local Election Officials to begin processing such ballots confidentially and with strict security during the 30 days preceding the election in order facilitate timely results.
- Condos continued: These two actions factored significantly into our decision to hold to existing law requiring the election day receipt of mailed ballots rather than extending returns beyond election day based on postmark.”
“Since the state of Wisconsin neither changed its ordinary election rules this year to mail each of its active registered voters a ballot nor authorized its Local Election Officials to process ballots early, Vermont is not an accurate comparison for the assertion Justice Kavanaugh has made,” Condos noted later on in the letter. “I respectfully ask that the record is corrected to reflect that.”
- Law & Crime also noted that “Kavanaugh’s concurrence had already been widely criticized because he cherry-picked a quote from a law review article that actually contradicted his own argument–and for various other reasons as well.”
