⁍ The court, on a 5-3 vote with three liberal justices dissenting, left in place a lower court’s Oct. 8 decision.

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⁍ The coronavirus pandemic is fueling an increase in voting by mail.

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⁍ The court action keeps in place a state policy that mail-in ballots be in the hands of election officials by the close of polls.

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– The Supreme Court on Monday denied an extension to the deadline for returning mail-in ballots in Wisconsin, dealing a blow to Democrats and leaving in place a lower court’s ruling that would have let officials count ballots that were postmarked by the time polls close on Election Day on Nov. 3 but arrived up to six days later, Reuters reports. The court, on a 5-3 vote with three liberal justices dissenting, left in place a lower court’s Oct. 8 decision that blocked US District Judge William Conley’s ruling that would have let officials count ballots that were postmarked by the time polls close on Election Day on Nov. 3 but arrived up to six days later. The high court’s order was issued just before the Senate voted to confirm President Trump’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the bench, Amy Barrett. The court action keeps in place a state policy that mail-in ballots be in the hands of election officials by the close of polls. Wisconsin is crucial to Republican President Trump’s re-election chances against Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissenting opinion that the court’s decision ‘will disenfranchise large numbers of responsible voters in the midst of hazardous pandemic conditions.’ The coronavirus pandemic is fueling an increase in voting by mail as Americans seek to avoid crowds at polling places, even as Trump makes repeated claims without evidence that such voting—long practiced in American elections—is rife with fraud. Elections experts have called such voter fraud exceedingly rare. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday showed Biden leading Trump by 53% to 44% in the state.