The US Supreme Court has ruled that states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, provided they are postmarked in time, upholding the grace periods used by 29 states and Washington DC. The decision rejected a Republican-led challenge that had sought to end the practice, and it carries significant weight with the midterm elections looming this year.
The case centered on a law in Mississippi and was backed by the Trump administration as part of a broader effort to tighten voting rules. The conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier struck down Mississippi's grace period, reasoning in essence that Election Day means Election Day, and not a week, a month or a longer period during which late ballots could still be counted.
The author of the ruling drew particular attention. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was nominated to the court by President Trump, wrote the decision and sided with the liberal justices, an outcome that some legal observers described as surprising given expectations about how she might rule.
Barrett made clear that the decision was narrow and not a constitutional ruling, but rather a straightforward textual interpretation of the federal law governing elections. The bottom line, she wrote, is that there is nothing in that law about when ballots must be received, adding that the court cannot add to the words that Congress chose.
Central to the reasoning was the role of the states. Barrett emphasized that states administer their own elections and are left to fill in the details, with each setting slightly different rules. Even while acknowledging concerns about fraud, she concluded that it should be up to each state to decide its own policy on counting ballots that arrive after Election Day.
In practical terms, the 29 states and the District of Columbia that allow a grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day can continue to do so. In just over half of those states, the more forgiving deadlines apply only to ballots cast by military members and voters living overseas, who often rely on the mail.
The ruling lands amid President Trump's broader attack on mail-in voting and comes in addition to a separate decision on Friday, in which a federal judge blocked his executive order to create a federal voting list. Together, the developments underscore how closely the rules of voting are being contested ahead of the next round of national elections.