Supreme Court Rules States May Count Mail Ballots Arriving After Election Day

A fractured conservative court hands mail voters a lifeline

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that states may count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day even if they arrive days afterward, handing a defeat to President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee in Watson v. Republican National Committee.nbcnews Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and all three liberal justices — a fracture in the court's conservative bloc.oregonlive The decision preserves laws in more than a dozen states, including California, New York and Texas, ahead of November's midterm elections.nbcnews

What the ruling says — and what it leaves open

Barrett's opinion turned on a precise reading of federal statute. Congress set a single Election Day in early November, she acknowledged, but that law "leaves open when those votes must be received."oregonlive The question before the court, she wrote, was "not whether requiring ballots to be received by election day is a good or bad idea; the question is whether the idea has made its way into the United States Code."centraloregondaily It has not, the majority concluded — and if Congress wants a uniform national receipt deadline, "the American people must choose it through their elected representatives."oregonlive

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the dissent for four justices, arguing that accepting late-arriving ballots "effectively postpones the date on which the electorate's choice is made, and federal law precludes that postponement."centraloregondaily He warned the ruling would produce "lamentable consequences" and further erode confidence in election integrity.oregonlive

Stakes for voters, states, and the 2026 midterms

The practical reach of Monday's decision is broad. Nearly 30% of voters cast ballots by mail in the 2024 elections, and hundreds of thousands arrived after Election Day in states with grace periods.centraloregondaily In Oregon alone, roughly 32,000 late-arriving ballots were counted in 2022 and 13,000 in 2024; Washington received nearly 120,000 valid post-Election Day ballots in 2024.oregonlive A ruling for the RNC would also have threatened extended deadlines for military and overseas voters — 29 states allow such voters extra time, according to a brief filed by former national security officials.nbcnews

Documented mail-ballot fraud remains vanishingly rare. A 2025 Brookings Institution report estimated roughly four cases of fraud per 10 million mail-in votes.centraloregondaily

Trump vows to push Congress after court setback

Trump called the ruling "a tremendous loss" and renewed his demand that Congress pass the SAVE America Act, which has cleared the House but stalled in the Senate.oregonlive The bill would restrict who may receive a mail ballot and impose documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.oregonlive RNC Chairman Joe Gruters echoed that call, saying "Election Day should mean exactly what it says."oregonlive

Stephen Richer, a Republican and former top election administrator in Arizona's Maricopa County, called Monday's outcome a "sigh of relief" for election officials who had braced for sweeping administrative upheaval had the RNC prevailed.oregonlive