Cite as: 609 U. S. ____ (2026) 17 Opinion of the Court ballot-receipt deadline.10 Given the difficulties of plaintiffs’ interpretation, it is little wonder that roughly 30 States count military and overseas voters’ absentee ballots that arrive after election day. Next, plaintiffs turn to precedent. See, e.g., Brief for Respondent Libertarian Party of Mississippi 28–29; accord, post, at 12–14. They argue that when Foster defines “election” as the “combined actions of voters and officials meant to make a final selection of an officeholder,” it must mean the “combined actions” of ballot casting and receipt. 522 U. S., at 71. Foster, however, does not support that conclusion. In Foster, we considered whether Louisiana’s system for open primary elections was consistent with the federal election-day statutes. See id., at 70. Unlike a conventional, party-run primary, Louisiana’s primary was run by the State. And if a candidate got a majority of votes in the primary, that was it: The candidate was “elected, and no further act [was] done on federal election day to fill the office in question.” Ibid. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). While this system was in place, “over 80% of the contested congressional elections in Louisiana . . . ended as a matter of law with the open primary.” Ibid. We held that this system violated the federal election-day statutes because the “contested selection of candidates” could be —————— 10 The dissent objects that this provision “does not cross-reference state-law deadlines.” Post, at 16, n. 9. But if the election-day statutes already established the “election” as the deadline for ballot receipt, Congress could have simply directed the designee to ensure all ballots are received by the “election.” Indeed, UOCAVA elsewhere ties the timeframe for certain actions to the “election.” See 52 U. S. C. §20302(a)(8)(A) (requiring States to transmit absentee ballots “not later than 45 days before the election” (emphasis added)). That Congress did not do so here suggests that the “election” is not synonymous with the “date by which an absentee ballot must be received in order to be counted in the election.” §20304(b)(1).