Election 2020: SCOTUS rejects attempt to block extended ballot deadline

Supreme Court Justice Brent Kavanaugh made a rare, if minor, correction to a Supreme Court opinion in response to a highly public objection.

Earlier Wednesday, the state of Vermont formally requested that Kavanaugh correct his concurring opinion from Monday's controversial Supreme Court decision blocking a mail ballot deadline extension in Wisconsin. 

While arguing that the court should not "second-guess" state legislative judgements during the pandemic, he attempted to draw a comparison between Wisconsin and other states which he claimed had decided against changes to mail ballot rules. 

"States such as Vermont," Kavanaugh wrote, "have decided not to make changes to their ordinary election rules, including to the election-day deadline for receipt of absentee ballots. The variation in state responses reflects our constitutional system of federalism. Different state legislatures may make different choices."

While it's true that Vermont has not extended its Election Day postmark requirement for mail ballots, the state has in fact made substantive changes to the rules aimed at allowing greater participation during a public health crisis, including mailing every voter a ballot and prepaid return envelope.

Kavanaugh made a revision to page 5 of his opinion, the court clerk said later Wednesday. It has not changed the substantive bottom line of his vote.

With the revision, it now reads, "Other States such as Vermont, by contrast, have decided not to make changes to their ordinary election-deadline rules, including to the election-day deadline for receipt of absentee ballots. See, e.g., Vt. Stat. Ann., Tit. 17, §2543 (2020). The variation in state responses reflects our constitutional system of federalism."

-ABC News Senior Washington Reporter Devin Dwyer and Benjamin Siegel

After a surprisingly sluggish weekend for polling, the floodgates have opened, with a mix of high-quality polls, low-quality polls and pretty much everything in between. And although there are some outliers in both directions, they tell a fairly consistent story, overall: A steady race nationally, perhaps with some gains for Joe Biden in the Midwest.

As Biden was leaving The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday night, he as asked why he sometimes wears two masks.

"Because, the one mask is the N-95 and I don't like it around my ears and I hold it on with this mask," Biden said referencing how he sometimes sports a blue paper mask over his N-95 mask.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator, joined ABC News Live to discuss Election Day preparations and urged voters, at this point, to drop off their ballot in person or in a dropbox rather than rely on the Postal Service.

"We're at this critical juncture before the election, returning your absentee ballot either in person to your local election official or in a Dropbox in your community is really the best option," Wolfe told ABC News Live Prime Anchor Linsey Davis.

Since so many Wisconsin residents have voted early or will over the next few days, Wolfe said she does not anticipate Election Day crowds being an issue. 

"We expect that there'll be about 40% of our expected turnout that come to the polls on Election Day," she said.

-ABC News' Jon Schlosberg