The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit refused Tuesday to expand mail-in voting to all Indiana citizens. Instead, the appeals court stated that Indiana’s already-existing absentee voting system adequately allows citizens access to voting in the upcoming election.

Indiana’s absentee voting system allows for individuals over 65 to request an absentee ballot by mail. Likewise, “disabled or homebound voters, voters who lack transportation, and voters who expect to be absent from the county on election day” may request absentee ballots in Indiana. All other individuals must vote in person despite COVID-19 concerns.

In its Tuesday decision by a panel of three judges, the court explained that requiring all citizens who cannot request absentee ballots to vote in person does not violate voting rights:

These claims hinge on one question: what is “the right to vote”? In McDonald v. Board of Election Commissioners of Chicago, the Supreme Court told us that the fundamental right to vote does not extend to a claimed right to cast an absentee ballot by mail. And unless a state’s actions make it harder to cast a ballot at all, the right to vote is not at stake. Considering that definition, Indiana’s absentee-voting regime does not affect Plaintiffs’ right to vote and does not violate the Constitution. In the upcoming election, all Hoosiers, including Plaintiffs, can vote on election day, or during the early-voting period, at polling places all over Indiana. The court recognizes the difficulties that might accompany in-person voting during this time. But Indiana’s absentee-voting laws are not to blame. It’s the pandemic, not the State, that might affect Plaintiffs’ determination to cast a ballot.

Indiana Vote by Mail, the organization that brought the suit, has issued a statement in response to the decision:

It’s important for Hoosier voters to bear in mind, as they stand in 30hour lines in close proximity to strangers, that they are doing so only because Governor Holcomb and Secretary of State Lawson refused to allow every voter the option of voting safely from home in the general election during this unprecedented health emergency. The failure of these elected officials to protect voters during this pandemic is appalling and unconscionable.

This case is one among many recent cases over election procedure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal courts recently determined mail-in ballot deadlines for Wisconsin and Michigan. Likewise, federal courts have determined witness requirements in Rhode Island. North Carolina had federal courts determine both mail-in deadlines and witness requirements.

Indiana Vote by Mail has not indicated whether it would appeal the decision.