A U.S. Supreme Court case will decide whether states may count mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive after Election Day — a practice allowed by about 20 states and territories.
Mississippi, which allows a five-day grace period for mail ballots, asked the court in June to review a Republican National Committee lawsuit arguing the grace period violates federal law. An appeals court sided with the RNC; that ruling, issued while last year’s presidential election was underway, did not take immediate effect.
Currently, 16 states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., accept and count mail ballots received after Election Day if they were postmarked on or before Election Day. Several other states provide similar extensions only for military and overseas voters. States say these grace periods help voters who miss return deadlines, face postal delays, or encounter disruptions such as severe weather or natural disasters.
The RNC and other GOP backers contend that only Congress can determine when elections end and that Congress established a uniform Election Day. The RNC brought multiple pre‑2024 challenges to state grace-period rules, including in Nevada. Since those efforts, some GOP-led states, including Utah, have eliminated their mail-ballot grace periods, and former President Trump attempted to end them nationally through an executive order.
During the 2024 election, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots that arrived after Election Day were counted in some places. Washington state, which conducts most voting by mail, reported that more than 250,000 ballots postmarked on time arrived after Election Day.
Joyce Vance, a law professor, said last year that Republicans appear to be pushing for a future rule under which only ballots cast and counted on Election Day would count — an approach she said fit voting patterns a century ago but not today’s reality of early and mail voting intended to accommodate people who cannot vote on a single Tuesday.
The Mississippi case is the third voting-related matter the Supreme Court will consider this term. Justices are also weighing another mail-ballot dispute about whether candidates have standing to sue over voting rules, and a high-profile challenge to the Voting Rights Act.
A tray of mail-in ballots is seen at King County elections headquarters on Nov. 5, 2024, in Renton, Wash. Lindsey Wasson/AP
