18 WATSON v. REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE Opinion of the Court “concluded as a matter of law before the federal election day.” Id., at 72. Foster is not about ballot receipt and nowhere mentions it. In fact, Foster does not address absentee voting at all. It decides a narrow issue narrowly, “hold[ing]” only that an election “may not be consummated prior to federal election day.” Id., at 72, n. 4 (emphasis added). True, Foster defines “election” to involve the “combined actions” of “voters and officials.” Id., at 71. But there is no reason to think that Foster is referring to the backend act of ballot receipt rather than the frontend acts necessary for the electorate to make its choice—like establishing the rules for the election, setting up polling sites, or providing ballots. Foster specifically refuses to “isolat[e] precisely what acts a State must cause to be done” on election day. Id., at 72. Thus, plaintiffs overread Foster to do exactly what it disavows. See also post, at 13–14. Plaintiffs, joined by the dissent, also place significant weight on a decision from the Montana Supreme Court, Maddox v. Board of State Canvassers, 116 Mont. 217, 149 P. 2d 112 (1944). See, e.g., Brief for Republican Respondents 39–40; accord, post, at 12–13. Maddox held unlawful a new Montana statute that allowed soldier ballots to be received after election day. But Maddox turned on existing state law, which the new law did “not . . . amend or repeal.” 116 Mont., at 220, 149 P. 2d, at 113; see id., at 220–222, 149 P. 2d, at 114. An existing statute required all ballots to be “delivered to the election officials and deposited in the ballot box before the closing of the polls on election day.” Id., at 223, 149 P. 2d, at 115. “[S]ince the state law provide[d] for voting by ballots deposited with the election officials,” Maddox reasoned, “that act must be completed on the day designated by state and federal laws.” Ibid. Maddox thus viewed receipt as governed by state, not federal, law. Indeed, both the concurring and dissenting opinions stressed that the majority’s opinion left the Montana legislature free