The Supreme Court in a 5-3 ruling sided with Republicans in blocking the Democrats' bid to reinstate a mail-in ballot extension in Wisconsin.
"In this case, as in several this Court has recently addressed, a District Court intervened in the thick of election season to enjoin enforcement of a State's laws", Chief Justice John Roberts wrote on Monday in the opinion of the court. "Because I believe this intervention was improper, I agree with the decision of the Seventh Circuit to stay the injunction pending appeal".
In mid-October, several organisations including the advocacy group Protect Democracy asked the US Supreme Court to extend the state of Wisconsin's mail-in ballot receipt deadline for the 3 November election.
The lawsuit sought to ensure there are in-person voting opportunities with social distancing and other measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
More than 63 million Americans have already voted - 42.6 million ballots have been cast by mail versus 20.9 in-person votes, according to the US Elections Project which consolidates state data. More than 87.8 million mail-in ballots have been requested overall.
In the state of Wisconsin, 1.75 million mailed ballots have been requested, about 61 percent of which have already been returned. In 2016, Trump won the state by less than 23,000 votes (less than 1 percent of the total vote).
