AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) A judge has rejected a request for an injunction allowing absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted and to require the government to pay for postage.

The Alliance for Retired Americans and others contended voters’ ability to cast ballots could be in jeopardy because of the pandemic.

But Superior Court Justice William Stokes wrote in his ruling Wednesday that changing the rules so close to the election would not be in the public interest; he also found that state’s existing rules present no irreparable harm to voters.

That means absentee ballots must be in clerks’ hands when the polls close on Election Day.