Supreme Court Hears Case on Late Mail-In Ballots

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a case challenging whether states can count mail-in ballots for federal elections that arrive after Election Day, provided they are postmarked by the deadline. The dispute centers on a Mississippi law allowing a five-day grace period and could affect voting procedures in more than a dozen states ahead of the November midterm elections.

The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, stems from a 2024 lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi against the state's secretary of state. They argue that federal law establishes a single Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, requiring all ballots to be received by the close of polls that day. A federal trial court initially upheld the Mississippi law, but a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit overturned it, ruling that the grace period conflicts with the federal statute. The full 5th Circuit declined to rehear the case, prompting Mississippi's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia permit grace periods for regular...