Supreme Court Upholds Mail-In Ballot Grace Periods in 5-4 Ruling, Rejecting GOP Challenge

A narrow majority preserves postmarked ballots

With midterm elections just over four months away, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling Monday upholding a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within five days of itbipartisanpolicy +1. The decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee rejected a GOP argument that federal law setting a single national Election Day implicitly requires ballots to be received — not just cast — by that datebipartisanpolicy. The outcome protects similar grace periods in 14 states and the District of Columbia, which collectively processed more than 745,000 late-arriving absentee ballots in 2024journalistsresource.

Barrett's majority and Alito's dissent

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's three liberals. "The electorate's choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received," Barrett wrote. "The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose."bipartisanpolicy +1 Barrett also warned that accepting the challengers' theory could unravel other modern voting practices, including early voting, because 19th-century statutes say nothing about those eitherbipartisanpolicy.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, and in part by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Alito argued the ruling "creates a serious risk of further undermining public confidence in our elections" and called on Congress to address what he called lamentable consequencesbipartisanpolicy +1. The cross-ideological composition of the majority — two conservatives joining three liberals — was notable given the court's increasingly rightward tilt on election lawkqed.

Trump calls it a "tremendous loss"

President Trump, who has campaigned relentlessly against mail-in voting since 2020, called the ruling a "tremendous loss" on Truth Social and demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act to compensatenbcnews +1. "There is only one reason to oppose — CHEATING!" Trump wrote, even as studies show mail ballot fraud accounts for roughly 0.000043% of ballots cast in recent general electionsjournalistsresource. RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said Republicans "will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day," while Mississippi's Republican attorney general urged the state legislature to eliminate the state's grace period regardless of the rulingjournalistsresource.

For election administrators, however, the decision provided clarity. "For election offices, this clarity matters," said Carolina Lopez, executive director of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictionsjournalistsresource. Congress retains the authority to act, Barrett noted — but with the SAVE America Act stalled in the Senate over a Democratic filibuster, that prospect remains dim heading into Novembernbcnews +1.