The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states may continue counting certain mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, provided they were mailed on time, handing a significant legal defeat to efforts backed by President Donald Trump and Republican organizations to tighten federal election rules.
In a narrow 5-4 decision, the nation’s highest court reversed a lower court ruling that had struck down Mississippi’s five-day grace period for receiving absentee ballots. The justices concluded that federal election laws require voters to cast their ballots by Election Day but do not mandate that election officials receive those ballots before polls close.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said Congress established a deadline for when ballots must be cast—not when they must reach election offices.
“The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose,” Barrett wrote in the court’s opinion.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined Barrett and the court’s three liberal justices to form the majority.
Mississippi Law Remains in Effect
The ruling allows Mississippi to continue counting absentee ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day but arrive within five business days afterward.
Mississippi limits absentee voting to specific categories of eligible voters, including senior citizens aged 65 or older, people with disabilities, military personnel, and residents temporarily away from home.
The decision also carries broader national implications, as roughly 30 states and the District of Columbia have similar policies that permit election officials to count ballots arriving after Election Day if they were mailed before the deadline.
Conservative Dissent Raises Election Concerns
The court’s four remaining conservative justices disagreed with the ruling.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the dissenting bloc, argued that allowing ballots to be counted after Election Day could weaken public trust in election outcomes and create uncertainty surrounding the voting process.
Republican Challenge Falls Short
The lawsuit was brought in 2024 by the Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party, and several other plaintiffs, who argued that Mississippi’s post-Election Day ballot receipt policy conflicted with federal laws governing congressional and presidential elections.
The Trump administration supported the legal challenge as part of a broader push to limit the use of mail-in voting across the country.
Mail voting has long been used more frequently by Democratic voters than Republican voters, making the issue a recurring point of political debate in national elections.
Trump Renews Call for Election Legislation
Following the ruling, President Trump criticized the decision and again urged Congress to approve the SAVE America Act, legislation backed by Republicans that would require voters to present photo identification at the polls and provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote.
The proposal has repeatedly stalled in the Senate, where Republicans hold a majority but lack the 60 votes typically needed to advance most legislation.
Democrats have opposed the measure, arguing that the proposed requirements could create additional barriers to voting, particularly for communities that have historically faced greater challenges in accessing the ballot box.
The Supreme Court’s decision preserves existing mail-ballot grace periods in numerous states, reinforcing that federal law sets a deadline for casting votes rather than for election officials to physically receive them.
