Supreme Court Upholds Mail Ballots Received After Election Day if Postmarked on Time

Supreme Court Upholds Mail Ballots Received After Election Day if Postmarked on Time

LCCN Staff Report

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states may continue counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, provided they are postmarked by Election Day, rejecting a Republican-backed challenge that sought to invalidate the practice in states with ballot receipt grace periods.

In a 5-4 decision, the Court upheld a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count absentee ballots arriving within five business days after Election Day if they were mailed on or before Election Day.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in the majority. Dissenting were Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

The lawsuit was brought by the Republican National Committee and supported by the Trump administration, which argued that federal law requires all ballots to be received—not merely mailed—by Election Day. The Supreme Court disagreed, leaving in place state laws that provide additional time for election officials to receive ballots delayed by the U.S. Postal Service.

The ruling affects election laws in more than a dozen states that count ballots arriving after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Many of those provisions were expanded or adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic to account for postal delays and increased mail voting.

Election officials and voting rights advocates argued that the grace periods protect military personnel stationed overseas, Americans living abroad, rural voters, elderly residents and others who rely on the Postal Service to return absentee ballots. Opponents contended that extending ballot receipt deadlines could delay election results and create uncertainty, arguing that Election Day should serve as a firm deadline for both casting and receiving ballots.

For California voters, the decision changes nothing. Under existing state law, vote-by-mail ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day are counted if they are received by county election officials within seven days after the election. The ruling leaves that law intact.

The decision comes just months before the 2026 midterm elections and removes uncertainty surrounding absentee ballot deadlines in states with similar laws. It also represents a significant setback for ongoing efforts to tighten mail voting requirements through federal litigation.