In a significant legal development in Washington, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on Monday that permits election officials to count mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day, provided those ballots were postmarked before the deadline. This decision effectively rejected a challenge brought forward by the Republican National Committee.
The court reached this conclusion with a 5-4 vote, determining that the specific Mississippi law contested by the RNC does not create an unlawful conflict with federal statutes that establish the timing of Election Day in early November. Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the majority opinion, which included the three liberal justices joining two members of the court’s conservative wing.
This outcome represents a notable setback for President Donald Trump, who has frequently voiced criticism regarding mail-in voting. Trump has consistently claimed, without providing substantiating evidence, that the practice is prone to fraud. By confirming the legality of the state laws, the decision prevents an election-year disruption of existing voting procedures. Consequently, the measure in Mississippi, along with similar regulations currently in place across 13 other states, will remain active for the upcoming midterm elections that will determine partisan control of the House and Senate.
States such as California, New York, and Texas utilize similar frameworks that allow the counting of late-arriving ballots as long as they were sent by the Election Day cutoff. Recent data indicated that hundreds of thousands of voters cast their ballots through such methods during the 2024 election cycle, representing a small but significant portion of total votes cast. Had the RNC been successful, it would have created ambiguity for numerous voters, including military personnel and those living abroad. According to a brief submitted by former national security officials, 29 states currently permit extended deadlines for these specific voter groups.
The Mississippi law allows for mail-in ballots to be counted up to five days past Election Day, provided they were mailed on time. The legal challenge against the state measure was initiated by the RNC, the state’s Republican Party, and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, while the state’s Republican attorney general, Lynn Fitch, spearheaded the defense. The case reached the Supreme Court following an October 2024 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which had suggested that federal law required ballots to be received by election officials by Election Day. However, the high court’s decision maintains the current status quo, noting that while federal law sets the date for Election Day on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, individual states retain authority over the administration of their own elections.
