Late absentee ballots OK

JACKSON, Miss. — The Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party failed in their federal-court challenge to a Mississippi election law allowing absentee ballots to be counted up to five days after election day. The groups had argued that the law conflicts with federal statutes establishing a uniform election day across the nation, but this regulation — a procedure for counting lawfully cast absentee ballots that are postmarked on or before election day, but that arrive late — is consistent with the federal law.