WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that states may count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, provided they were postmarked beforehand, upholding a Mississippi law challenged by the Republican National Committee.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority in Watson v. Republican National Committee, said federal statutes setting Election Day govern when voters must cast their ballots but do not establish a deadline for when ballots must be received. Barrett concluded that federal election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt and therefore do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked before Election Day but received afterward. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the majority opinion.
Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining most of the dissent. Alito argued that historically, holding an election on a particular day meant completing ballot collection that day.
The ruling upholds a Mississippi law, enacted in 2020, that allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if received within five days. Eighteen states and territories have similar mail ballot grace periods, most of them Democratic-led. The case reverses an October 2024 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had held that federal law requires ballots to be received by Election Day.
President Donald Trump called the decision a "tremendous loss" in a social media post and renewed his call for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would tighten federal mail-voting rules. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said he would urge the state legislature to repeal the law despite the ruling.
The decision, issued roughly four months before the November midterm elections, takes immediate effect. No further appeals were confirmed as of Tuesday.
