This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that hinges on the meaning of Election Day – and it's got Democrats sweating.

The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, challenges a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots received long after Election Day to be counted.

It's one of 14 states, including populous ones like California and New York, that allow a post-Election Day "grace period" (five business days in Mississippi but longer elsewhere) for ballots to be returned.

That law is being challenged by the RNC.

Taking a states' rights stance, Mississippi's defenders argue that deciding when ballots must arrive is a state's decision.

The U.S. Constitution reserves to state legislatures the authority to prescribe "the times, places, and manner of holding federal elections."

True – but the Constitution empowers Congress to set the date.

In 1824, Congress chose the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day, and it's been the same ever since.

But in recent years, the meaning of Election Day has been eroded – its finality and certainty upended by state laws allowing absentee ballots to be counted days later.

At stake is a national treasure of civic virtue, long understood as the one day on which the whole........

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