The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week in a lawsuit that could affect elections for more than a dozen states, including California, requiring voters to send their mail-in ballots early.
The dispute is over a Mississippi law that allows election officials there to count such ballots when they are postmarked by Election Day but received days after. The conservative-leaning high court appears ready to side with the state’s Republican party and strike down the legislation, which was passed during the pandemic by a GOP-majority Mississippi Legislature, according to The New York Times.
If rejected, laws in other states that allow late-arriving ballots may also be at risk. In California, vote-by-mail ballots that arrive a week after Election Day are still counted. Voters submitted over 400,000 of these ballots in 2024, or about 2.5% of the total, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The lawsuit comes as President Donald Trump moves to restrict voting access ahead of the November election. Trump has expressed a particular disdain for mail-in voting, often arguing, without evidence, that mail-in balloting is a scam and a reason he lost the presidential election in 2020.
Speaking of Trump:
- CA sues over oil pipeline: California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday said the state is suing the Trump administration to stop its efforts to restart a pipeline that spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil along the shore of Santa Barbara County in 2015. After state regulators stalled Sable Offshore Corp’s plans to resume pipeline operations, the company got the Trump administration to step in and force a restart using emergency authority. Bonta argues the move infringes on state powers, and that the administration “fabricated” claims of a national energy emergency. Read more from CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo.
- ICE agents at airports: On Monday U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at a handful of airports across the country to assist with security due to a federal staffing shortage. California Democratic officials were quick to slam the deployment, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, who said the agents “bring nothing but fear (and) chaos.” Video footage of federal officers detaining a woman at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday, a day before the deployment, also drew sharp criticism from some officials.
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Other Stories You Should Know
Hiccups with tech migration at CA prisons
A vendor switch on the company that provides electronic tablets to California’s 90,000 prisoners is causing disruption and headaches among users, reports CalMatters’ Joe Garcia.
Incarcerated people in the state have access to tablets, which they can use to call and text loved ones from inside their cells and access other services. Both prison staff and residents say these devices have made prisons feel safer because people no longer need to share limited phone resources, and officers are no longer tasked with facilitating an underequipped system.
By the end of last year, tablets were supposed to be swapped out with ones from the company Securus, after it won a contract bidding war with the previous vendor, Viapath/Global Tel Link.
But the transition has been rocky. Not only is it behind schedule, but in some facilities where Securus tablets have rolled out, prisoners discovered their messages did not cost 3 cents per message as believed, but rather a higher cost based on character count. Securus quietly corrected its billing practice in March to 3 cents per message after prisoners complained and CalMatters reached out about the fees.
UC students lobby in Sacramento
More than 250 University of California students from across all nine undergraduate campuses were at the state Capitol earlier this month, lobbying for bills that could have a notable effect on their lives as college students, writes Khadeejah Khan of CalMatters’ College Journalism Network.
As part of the UC Students Association’s Lobby Day, students pushed for a state constitutional amendment that would add voting power for a second student regent. Currently only one of the two student positions on the 26-member Board of Regents has such power.
To help students facing homelessness and food insecurity, UC student leaders also advocated for two bills: One that would exempt student, staff and faculty housing projects at college campuses from environmental review to boost development and another that aims to increase student access to CalFresh, the state’s federally-funded food assistance program.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: Medi-Cal — a program that has grown to cover 14.5 million Californians and costs more than $200 billion a year — faces faulty estimates of state revenues and tightened federal support.
The proposed billionaires tax is not a threat to innovation, but rather a long‑overdue public dividend from a class of people who became rich on the backs of the government, writes Duane Roberts, editor and publisher of the Anaheim Investigator blog.
The Democratic candidates for California governor who have been encouraged to stay in the race are overwhelmingly white and backed by significant financial networks — underscoring a deeper question about how political legitimacy is defined, writes Katharine Pichardo, president and CEO of the Latino Victory Fund.
Other things worth your time:
CA lawmaker proposes income tax deduction for homeowners’ insurance // The Orange County Register
Where does CA state workers’ next potential boss stand on telework? // The Sacramento Bee
CA governor debate draws backlash over who made the stage // The Mercury News
Immigrant families in CA fear losing benefits amid public charge confusion // EdSource
Hawaii faces more than $1B in storm recovery. CA is still clamoring for LA fire aid // San Francisco Chronicle
New question emerges about local initiative that could change Shasta’s election law // Shasta Scout
LA’s main homelessness agency is at risk of blowing federal audit deadline, auditor warns // LAist