Sorry, I got interrupted when answering you last time and I sort of lost not just my train of thought but the whole track.
I believe you are referring to 2.U.S.Codes 1&7. Those codes establish the election date for Senators and Representatives. 3 U.S. Code 21 establishes the date for the election of the President and Vice President.
I agree that there is one day on which votes are to be cast. The question is by what date must officials receive the ballots and do states have the authority to establish a grace period?
This section “... if the State modifies the period of voting, as necessitated by force majeure events that are extraordinary and catastrophic, as provided under laws of the State enacted prior to such day, “election day” shall include the modified period of voting.”
You may disagree but I think “period of voting” would be from the day votes are cast to when they are received by state officials. This means (IMHO) that Congress only intended that such force majeure events would be cause to count votes post election day. Provisions are already made in federal law for military and overseas ballots.
In other words, only acts of God are reason for a state to change how and when votes are cast and received. Such changes will be already defined and established in state law prior to election day. I think that pretty much means that is the only exception to when the period of voting is to be altered.
I appreciate the complexities that you provided, and I admit that I was focused on Title 3, which was about Electoral College elections.
You make serious points that are worthy of robust debate, and you presented citations that I need to research on my own, as I said previously that I was focused on Electoral College elections. You accurately pointed out a blind spot of mine.
Still, even if we set Senate elections aside (the 17th amendment as a confounding variable), the question of Electoral College voting is clear. My point that the section that was repealed by Democrats that would have required Electors to be determined on election day or the state legislatures could select Electors still stands. Federal statute expected the elections for President to be resolved ON election day. If it wasn't, state legislatures could step in and choose Electors on their own. On this point, the only question is why would the Democrats repeal this statute unless they wanted an open-ended period to receive votes for Electors?
This then devolves to state election ballots, which have different statutes for when mail-in votes are cast, when they are mailed, when the post office postmarks the ballots, when the ballots are received and processed, when they are counted, and when the counts are reported up the chain to state election officials.
My point is that the states, as a matter of convenience, have bundled Electoral College votes, Congressional votes, and state election votes, onto a single ballot that is processed via state election laws. This has the potential to violate federal timing statutes, especially when the state tries to extend the ballot receipt deadlines for mail-in ballots.
The state can be gracious with late periods for state elections, but federal laws are specific and not subject to state laxity for convenience. Regarding Electors, Congress took away the state legislature's ability to name their choice of Electors if the state counts go on and on past Election Day. My question is why??
-PJ