Supreme Court hearing dispute today over late-arriving mail ballots

Washington- The Supreme Court examines on Monday a major electoral conflict At issue is whether federal law prohibits states from counting mail-in ballots postmarked but received after Election Day.

The case before the high court focuses on Mississippi’s deadline for late ballots and whether its law, along with similar measures from 13 other states, conflicts with federal laws that set Election Day to the Tuesday following the first Monday in November in some years.

Arguments are taking place as President Trump pushes to end mail-in voting, with some exceptions, and a Supreme Court decision in the case is expected to come months before the November midterm elections.

All 50 states require ballots to be marked and submitted before Election Day. But 14 states and the District of Columbia have enacted grace periods, during which ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted if they arrive after that day. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia allow at least some military and overseas ballots to be counted if they are received after Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Four states — Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio and Utah — passed laws last year eliminating grace periods and now require mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day to be counted.

The Supreme Court is considering Mississippi’s law, which allows mail-in ballots received up to five days after the election to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. In 2024, the Republican National Committee and the state GOP, along with the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, filed lawsuits challenging the state’s ballot receipt deadline.

The plaintiffs argued that federal laws passed in the 1800s setting a uniform day for the election of the president and Congress require that ballots be received by Election Day. Republicans say Mississippi’s grace period conflicts with these federal laws.

A federal district court upheld the Mississippi law, finding that it did not conflict with federal Election Day laws because, when Congress enacted those laws, the ordinary meaning of the term “election” was the voter’s final choice of a candidate.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit overturned that decision and ruled that federal law trumped Mississippi’s deadline, since “election” day is the day by which ballots must be cast by voters and received by state election officials.

“As election officials continue to receive ballots, the election continues: the outcome is not yet fixed, because actual ballots continue to be received,” a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit found.

Mississippi officials appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which agreed in November to decide whether states can count ballots that are filed on Election Day but received by election officials after that day.

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican, is urging the Supreme Court to uphold the law. In his filings with the high court, he argued that his state and others with deadlines for receiving ballots after Election Day made a policy choice, one that reflects the nation’s federalist system. The Elections Clause of the Constitution gives states the power to set the rules for federal elections, and offices at the state and local levels oversee their administration, although Congress can pass election regulations.

Watson and other grace period advocates have warned that if the Supreme Court adopts the 5th Circuit’s rule, it could jeopardize laws in the 29 states that accept some ballots after Election Day, including those from military and overseas voters. Nearly 4 million U.S. service members and citizens living abroad rely on mail-in ballots, according to a coalition of groups representing troops, military families and overseas voters.

In his filings with the Supreme Court, Watson argued that an “election” is the choice of a federal official, and that voters make that choice when they mark and submit their ballot. Under Mississippi law, all voters – whether voting in person or by mail – must make their “conclusive” choice of candidates for office before Election Day.

“It does not matter – as far as federal Election Day laws are concerned – whether Mississippi election officials can receive ballots after Election Day,” he wrote in a brief to the Supreme Court. “Only voting is essential to an election.”

But lawyers for the Republican National Committee urged the Supreme Court to uphold the 5th Circuit ruling that invalidated Mississippi’s law, arguing that the election ends when the polls close and not when voters make their choice. The term “election,” they argued in a brief, refers to the public process of selecting candidates for federal office.

Election Day includes casting and receiving ballots, and both must end on the date set by Congress, Republicans and the Mississippi Libertarian Party said. They also argued that a patchwork of delays in receiving ballots only reproduces the problems Congress was trying to solve when it set a uniform day for elections in the 19th century.

The Republican Party has also warned that laws allowing officials to count late-arriving ballots encourage fraud and create the appearance of fraud.

“In the eyes of many, they undermined the effectiveness and integrity of the elections,” the RNC argued.

Claims of mail-in ballot fraud have been perpetuated and amplified by Mr. Trump, even though cases of mail-in ballot fraud are rare. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, election experts say.

The Trump administration supports the Republican Party in this case and has argued that under federal law, states cannot count presidential, Senate and House election ballots that they receive after Election Day.

“[I]In establishing a uniform ‘Election Day’ for the Nation, Congress has imposed what those words have always demanded: on Election Day, the polls must close and every vote must have been received,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief.

A ruling in the case over Mississippi’s ballot receipt deadline is expected by late June or early July, raising fears that if the Supreme Court overturns its grace period, election officials in some states will scramble to notify voters of the changed deadlines months before the November midterm elections.