January 13, 2026 3:50 a.m.  

On Monday, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and California Senator Alex Padilla announced they are leading colleagues in filing an amicus brief in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a landmark mail-in voting case that will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court later this year.

A release said in 2024 the Republican National Committee challenged a Mississippi law that allows ballots postmarked by election day to be received up to five days after election day, arguing that this law violates federal law setting the timing of elections.

Wyden claims that if the 5th Circuit’s ruling is affirmed by the Supreme Court, vote-by-mail in more than a dozen states – including Oregon and California – will be thrown into disarray as huge numbers of voters, particularly rural, military and overseas voters could be disenfranchised.

Wyden said, “Republicans will stop at nothing in their crusade against vote-by-mail because they’re afraid they can’t win elections on their own merits”.

The release said for years, Wyden has been one of the Senate’s leading advocates on vote-by-mail. Earlier this year, he re-introduced his legislation to expand Oregon’s vote-by-mail system nationwide.

Wyden and Padilla were joined by twelve other Democratic senators in filing the amicus brief.