Supreme Court upholds state grace periods for mail-in ballots
The Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that lets election officials count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within five days, ruling 5-4 against a Republican challenge, NPR reported . Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the three Democratic appointees; Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Barrett concluded that federal statutes setting a uniform Election Day do not pre-empt a state grace period for ballots cast on time.
The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign had argued ahead of the 2024 election that such grace periods conflict with federal law. The ruling forecloses that line of attack as the 2026 midterms approach. By the Voting Rights Lab’s count, 30 states allow late-arriving ballots for at least some voters — 14 states and Washington, D.C., for all mail voters and 16 more specifically for military and overseas voters — so a contrary decision would have unsettled deadlines well beyond Mississippi.