Supreme Court endorses post-Election Day mail-in ballot counting ahead of midterms [View all]
Source: Courthouse News Service
June 29, 2026
WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court ruled against Republicans’ attack on mail-in ballots on Monday, shoring up election rules in over a dozen states ahead of the midterms.
Nearly 200 years ago, Congress mandated federal elections be held uniformly on one Tuesday in November every other year. Accordingly, all states require ballots to be cast by federal Election Day. But since states have authority over the time, manner and places of such elections, nearly 30 states and the District of Columbia allow at least some ballots that are cast by Election Day to be counted if they are received soon after that.
In 2020, the Mississippi Legislature enacted one such law, permitting absentee ballots to be counted as long as they were postmarked on or before the date of the election and received by the registrar no more than five business days after the election. The Republican National Committee argued that in practice, Mississippi’s law meant the election no longer ended on Election Day.
When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in March, the conservative justices worried that without finality on Election Day, the public would lose trust in the electoral process. However, the liberal justices balked at their conservative colleagues’ policy concerns, noting the question before them was whether federal election statutes barred states from making such laws. The state says its law ensures ballots are not rejected because of minor mail delivery delays. Republicans argue election officials’ convenience comes at the cost of the Constitution.
Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/supreme-court-endorses-post-election-day-mail-in-ballot-counting-ahead-of-midterms/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - Watson v rnc - https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1260_g3cn.pdf
= new reply since forum marked as read