The US Supreme Court’s agreement is a blow to Trump, allowing the governing states to accept ballots after Election Day

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day. That was a blow to the Trump administration and some Republican states that had urged justices to require all ballots to arrive by the end of the election.

In one 5-4 decisionThe court found that federal law does not prevent states from accepting behind schedule ballots. The ruling is a victory for Democrats and voting rights advocates who had said setting a strict deadline for ballots to arrive on Election Day risked disenfranchising voters amid fears that postal services would deteriorate.

The case, RNC vs. WatsonAt issue was whether federal law takes precedence over a Mississippi law that requires mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted as long as they arrive within five business days of the election. Thirteen states have similar laws extending a “grace period” for ballots received in the mail after polls close.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, said federal law does not preempt state law because elections involve voters making a decision that must be made on or before Election Day. Voters who cast their ballots by mail would have made a decision by Election Day, Barrett argued.

“The electorate’s choice will be made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received,” Barrett wrote.

Barrett warned that the decision was based on the interpretation of federal law and not the U.S. Constitution. She noted that the court did not consider the scope of Congress’s authority to regulate federal elections – suggesting that the justices could uphold such a law if Congress sets a nationwide deadline for receipt of ballots.

Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined some of the dissent.

“If ballots received after Election Day are added to the ballots that determine the outcome of the election, the election of the electorate will not occur on Election Day and will violate the federal Election Day statute,” Alito wrote.

States with grace periods

In addition to Mississippi, other states with a type of grace period include Alaska, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, called the Supreme Court’s decision a victory for those states as well as 30 states that accept military and foreign ballots cast after Election Day.

“This is a victory for all states and for everyone who respects the will of the Founders, who ensured the security of our elections by giving the states the authority to conduct these elections — not a single person sitting in Washington, DC,” Becker said in a statement.

Some local election officials had warned that requiring all ballots to be received by the end of the election would burden their offices as they try to quickly notify voters of the change just months before the midterm elections. More ballot drop boxes that allow voters to opt out of having their ballots mailed could lend a hand, they say, but they also cost money.

“Ultimately, voters could also be harmed,” election officials in California, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington wrote in a court brief, warning that some ballots may not be received on time, “despite the best efforts of diligent and proactive administrators and local governments.”

However, some Republican secretaries of state had urged the justices to strike down the “grace period” laws. Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry and Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray wrote in a court brief that an Election Day deadline “provides the clear rule that effective election administration requires.”

At least 725,000 ballots were postmarked by Election Day 2024 and arrived within a legally allowed window after the election, according to the New York Times has reportedciting election officials in 14 of 22 states and territories that accepted behind schedule ballots this year.

According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a total of about 30% of voters voted by mail in 2024.

RNC challenged the law

The Republican National Committee challenged the Mississippi law, which was defended by Mississippi Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson. The RNC argued that a longstanding federal law that sets the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as election day for federal offices overrides state laws that allow ballots cast by Election Day but received later to be counted.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals decided in October 2024 Federal law requires ballots to be received by Election Day. President Donald Trump also unilaterally sought to require mail-in ballots to be received by the end of Election Day in a sweeping election executive order last year. Much of that order was blocked in federal court.

The Supreme Court “rejected the RNC’s radical attempt to rewrite election laws in a way that would have resulted in the rejection of hundreds of thousands of ballots and the disenfranchisement of voters across the country through no fault of their own,” Elisabeth Frost, litigation director at Elias Law Group, said in a statement.

Elias Law Group represented two nonprofit voting rights groups, the Vet Voice Foundation and the Mississippi Alliance for Retired Americans, which intervened as defendants in the case.

The Supreme Court issued its decision on Monday against a background of uncertainty around postal ballots. Trump signed an executive order in March that would restrict mail-in voting by requiring states to provide the U.S. Postal Service with lists of potential mail-in voters in advance. A federal judge recently blocked immense portions of the order, triggering an almost certain appeal.

Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters accused Democrats of inviting chaos by allowing the election to “drag on” for days and weeks after votes were cast. He said Republicans would not be deterred by the decision.

“If we want a fair and secure election, Election Day should mean exactly what it says it will. That’s why this decision makes it even more urgent that Congress pass the SAVE America Act,” Gruters said in a statement, referring to restrictive voter legislation pushed through by Trump that lacks the votes to pass in the U.S. Senate.

Trump said the decision was a “tremendous loss.” Social media post and again pushed for passage of the SAVE America Act.

Paul Clement, an attorney for the Republican National Committee, said during oral negotiations In March before the Supreme Court, the prospect of the outcome of an election changing because ballots arrived after Election Day was unacceptable to losing candidates. After the 2020 election, President Donald Trump asked election officials not to count ballots received after Election Day, but states continued to count ballots.

“If you have an election and late-arriving ballots are taken into account in the election in a way that means that what everyone thought was the result on election day is the opposite a week later, 21 days later, the losers are not going to accept that result. Period,” Clement told the justices.

Watson’s lawyers argued that both legal and historical precedent supported his position. Watson said states can decide that voters have made their final decision when ballots are presented to state officials, rather than when they receive them.

Watson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is a development report that will be updated.