Baskets of ballots sit at a novel ballot processing center in Thurston County, Washington, on October 30, 2025. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
West Virginia is one of 31 states that allow mail-in ballots mailed on or before Election Day to be counted, as long as they are received within a reasonable time of Election Day. West Virginia’s election reflects a balance between the need for electoral finality and the unique needs of our citizens. An invoice The law introduced in the 2026 legislative session to eliminate this practice failed. That’s a good thing. Our state is right to count these ballots, not for partisan reasons, but for reasons of fairness and democracy.
What West Virginia law provides
In West VirginiaVoters can vote by mail if they are unable to vote in person due to a disability or health condition because they are very venerable. In addition, postal voting is available to every voter who cannot stay in the district due to private or business trips, attending an educational or training institution or working outside the district. Uniformed military personnel abroad and U.S. citizens abroad can also vote by mail.
Postal voting are accepted if the ballot bears a USPS postmark dated no later than Election Day and is received no later than the hour the Election Commission meets to count the votes. The various district committees of candidates meet on fifth day after Election Day, excluding Sundays.
Why West Virginia’s policy is right
West Virginia’s impoverished postal service affects this entire question. The USPS evaluates the mail delivery performance of every postal district in the country. West Virginia is located in the Kentucky-West Virginia district. Districts are ranked from 1 to 50, with 1 representing the worst performing districts. In 2025, the West Virginia-Kentucky district ranked first 8Th Worst performing district for regular mail delivery.
West Virginia is predominantly rural, and rural voters face more than just long delivery times. Since 2000, West Virginia 175 post offices closedmore than any other state. We may expect further closures as our existing post offices serve fewer customers on average than the national average. Rural voters are not responsible for the problems with the Postal Service. It is right to give them a grace period to count their mail-in ballots because of these issues.
Foreign military personnel and U.S. citizens living abroad are a special problem. While a military voting overseas law allows electronic submission of mail-in ballots, about 40% of these voters are still sending their ballots by mail. These ballots, like all others, must be received in each state by the deadline. Domestic postal service may be leisurely, but international postal service is much worse, especially for service personnel stationed in remote areas.
Some will argue that mail-in voters should simply submit their ballots by mail earlier. In other words, these voters should calculate what delay is possible and make their voting decision earlier to take the delay into account. But consider what the postal voter has to do to achieve this. Many of us decide how we want to vote the moment we turn on the voting machine. Insisting that mail voters mail their ballots in time for Election Day deprives them of the full time the rest of us enjoy to consider campaign arguments and make our decisions. This makes postal voters second-class voters.
The Supreme Court Case
Under the Election clause Under the Constitution, states are responsible for establishing “the time, places, and manner of holding elections,” although Congress “may at any time by law make or modify such regulations.” This authority applies only to federal elections, but both state and federal elections are held on the same day and ballots list candidates for both state and federal offices. The Congress has passed a law make an early Tuesday in November “Election Day.”
In a case before the Supreme Court, the Republican National Committee challenged a Mississippi law that allows a five-day grace period for ballots mailed on or before Election Day and received afterward. This is virtually the same as West Virginia law. The question arises as to whether “election day” in federal elections means the day on which all votes must be cast or the day on which all votes must be received. In the latter case, the second question arises as to whether this law takes precedence over state laws for state elections.
This doesn’t seem to be a tough case. We have a federal system in which states regulate much of life within their own borders, and states early on chose very different days to hold elections. The federal law in question was passed simply to ensure a uniform day. It says nothing about whether you cast ballots or whether you receive them. States have allowed a grace period to receive some ballots for over 100 years. In fact, Congress has deferred states’ adoption practices the applicable law Regulation of the receipt of military and foreign votes. It’s demanding to imagine that Congress would repeal this practice without directly saying so.
If the RNC wins in the Supreme Court, the result would technically only apply to the federal election in Mississippi. States, including West Virginia, would still be bound by their own laws regarding ballot counting in state elections. This cannot be changed by executive order of the Governor or Secretary of State. And no law could be passed to align any of our practices with the Supreme Court’s ruling, even with respect to federal elections, until the January 2027 session of the Legislature – too slow for the 2026 midterm elections. This would lead to chaos and further litigation.
There is no consistent description of the states that have implemented grace periods for absentee voting. They are red and blue, large and diminutive, urban and rural. One wonders why the Republican National Committee is spending the huge sums necessary to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court just to ensure that only votes received on Election Day are counted. Many Republican voters are disenfranchised. The answer is Donald Trump sees a political advantage in abolishing all postal voting. And that’s depressed.
