Supreme Court Upholds State Law Allowing Ballots That Arrive After Election Day

The court rejected Republicans’ argument that federal law prevails over a Mississippi law permitting late-arriving ballots.

Election workers open and inspect mail-in ballot envelopes containing voted ballots after they completed signature verification during processing inside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix on Nov. 5, 2024. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5–4 on June 29 to uphold a Mississippi law that allows the state to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day in federal elections.

Mississippi law allows counting of mail-in ballots received within a five-day grace period after Election Day. The statute was enacted in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide flexibility to voters.

Federal law sets the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in certain years as Election Day for federal offices. A presidential election takes place every four years; a congressional election occurs every two years.

The federal Election Day law focuses on when ballots must be cast, as opposed to when they must be received by election officials to count.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion in the case known as Watson v. Republican National Committee (RNC). Joining the majority opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the ruling.

This is a developing story and will be updated.