The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether states may count mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive after Election Day — a policy some states and territories allow to account for postal delays and other disruptions.
Mississippi, which permits a five‑day grace period for mail ballots, asked the court in June to review a Republican National Committee challenge claiming the practice violates federal law. An appeals court ruled for the RNC; that decision, issued while last year’s presidential contest was underway, was not put into immediate effect.
At present, 16 states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., accept and count ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked on or before Election Day. Several other states grant similar extensions only to military and overseas voters. State officials say these grace periods help voters who miss return deadlines, encounter postal delays, or are affected by severe weather or other disruptions.
The RNC and other GOP supporters argue that only Congress can set when an election ends and that Congress established a uniform Election Day. The RNC has pursued multiple pre‑2024 legal challenges to state grace periods, including litigation in Nevada. Since those challenges, some Republican‑led states, such as Utah, have eliminated their mail‑ballot grace periods, and former President Trump sought to end them nationwide through an executive order.
During the 2024 election, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots that arrived after Election Day were counted in some jurisdictions. Washington state, which conducts most voting by mail, reported more than 250,000 ballots that were postmarked on time but arrived after Election Day.
Law professor Joyce Vance said Republicans appear to be pushing toward a rule under which only ballots cast and counted on Election Day would be valid — an approach rooted in voting patterns from a century ago that she said does not reflect today’s widespread early and mail voting, which accommodates people who cannot vote on a single Tuesday.
The Mississippi case is one of three voting‑related matters the Supreme Court is taking up this term. Justices are also weighing a separate mail‑ballot dispute over whether candidates have standing to sue about voting rules and a major challenge to the Voting Rights Act.