Among the Supreme Court’s orders this morning was one very big election-law case: Watson v. Republican Nat’l Committee, an appeal by Mississippi and its strange bedfellows among Democrats and progressives from a Fifth Circuit decision ruling that ballots cast by Election Day but arriving after that day may not be counted in congressional elections, because Congress has set a national election day.

There is, of course, an intermediate position, which is that it violates federal law to count ballots without evidence that they were cast before the election, but this presents challenges to finalizing elections without a firm deadline. In any event, it is a positive development that the Court aims to settle the question.

As I noted last month, the Court’s decision in the pending case of Bost v. Illinois Bd. of Elections addresses who has standing to sue in cases challenging state ballot-receipt deadlines, but won’t resolve the question on the merits. Watson should.