Supreme Court says states can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day
The 5-4 ruling preserves grace periods in roughly 30 states and leaves the timing rules in place for upcoming elections.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states are legally permitted to accept and count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on time.
- Decided by a 5–4 majority, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts to secure the ruling.
- The decision rejected a legal challenge brought by the Republican National Committee against a Mississippi law that allows a five-day grace period for late-arriving mail.
- Opponents of the grace periods argued unsuccessfully that an 1845 federal law required all ballots to be both cast and received by the official federal Election Day.
- By upholding these rules, the high court ensured that existing ballot grace periods across roughly 15 states and Washington, D.C., will remain fully intact for the upcoming midterm elections.
254 Articles
254 Articles
Supreme Court rules Mississippi can count absentee ballots received after election day
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled that federal law does not bar states from counting absentee ballots that arrive after election day, so long as they are postmarked by that date. The 5-4 decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee reversed a US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling that had struck down a Mississippi law allowing officials to count absentee ballots received up to five business days after election day, provided …
Divided Supreme Court Narrowly Allows Grace Period for Mail Ballots
By a vote of five to four, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that ballots postmarked by Election Day but received days later can still be counted. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, drew a distinction between what might be politically practical and what they believe legislatures may and have previously agreed on. “The electorate’s c…
California officials hail Supreme Court ruling on mail-in ...
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