“NOT AN ‘ELECTION WEEK'”: CA law giving mail ballots a week after Election Day to arrive is illegal, lawsuit says.

“Federal law requires an Election Day – not an ‘Election Week,’” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in the same release. “California’s counting of ballots that arrive a full seven days after Election Day is unlawful, encourages fraud, and undermines voter confidence in election outcomes.”

The lawsuit is similar to others Judicial Watch has launched across the country, also challenging extended vote-by-mail receipt and counting deadlines.

In a lawsuit against a deadline extension law in Mississippi, Judicial Watch secured a ruling in their favor from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which declared counting ballots received after Election Day in federal races violated federal law.

In Illinois, Judicial Watch challenged a vote-by-mail law, which forces election officials to count all mail-in ballots received up to two weeks after Election Day, even if the ballots don’t include a postmark proving they were mailed by Election Day, as otherwise required by law.

Judicial Watch, along with U.S. Rep. Michael Bost, R-Illinois, lost in the lower courts. However, they have appealed those rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court is currently awaiting a response brief from Illinois state officials defending the law. The court set a deadline of April 4 to receive the state of Illinois’ response.

In the meantime, Judicial Watch has partnered with Issa to open a third front in the fight to end the counting of vote-by-mail ballots that come in long after Election Day.

Representative democracy requires trust in the system, and California’s system (among others’) is untrustworthy.