The Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit by defeated Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox that challenged election officials' early count of mail-in ballots in the state.
According to The Hill, Cox, who lost to Democrat Wes Moore, was looking to reverse a lower court decision that permitted election officials to tabulate mail-in ballots weeks before Election Day.
"The U.S. Constitution requires that the rules for holding an election be made only by the legislative body of the state holding those elections," Cox's attorney wrote in court filings. "It is indisputable in this case that the Maryland Circuit Court for Montgomery County prescribed the manner of holding elections in Maryland, in direct contradiction of the manner already set by the Maryland legislature."
Cox's lawyers had argued that the state courts exceeded their authority by permitting officials to circumvent a Maryland law prohibiting the canvassing of mail-in ballots until the day after Election Day.
WYPR radio noted the argument centered around the definition of an emergency. State law mandates that elections workers can't begin to count mail in ballots until after Election Day unless there is an emergency.
Maryland was under a state of emergency declared by then-Gov. Larry Hogan in 2020. But that state of emergency had expired.
But election officials maintained they faced an emergency situation after being hit with almost 550,000 mail-in ballots.
The Hill reported that Cox has maintained the court fight presented the "exact same" legal issues as Moore v. Harper. That case is now before the high court and involves a challenge to North Carolina's Republican-drawn voting map, according to The Hill.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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