Mail-in votes can still be counted after Election Day as long as they are postmarked before, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, dealing a major blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to reshape the nation's elections.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court found a Mississippi election measure does not violate federal statutes that establish Election Day as the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberal justices in upholding the state’s policy. The court’s remaining four conservative justices dissented.
“The Framers recognized the difficulty of crafting election laws 'applicable to every probable change in the situation of the country,’” wrote Barrett, who was nominated to the court by Trump.
“So instead of constitutionalizing election law, they decided that 'a discretionary power over elections' needed to be lodged 'somewhere,’” she wrote. “Suffice it to say, that power was not lodged in this Court. The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: “If ballots received after election day are added to the set of ballots that dictate the election’s outcome, the electorate’s choice does not occur on election day, and the federal election-day statutes are violated.”
The ruling stemmed from a challenge to a Mississippi law that allowed mail-in ballots to be counted up to five business days after Election Day, so long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
Like other states, Mississippi passed the law in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to give people more time to vote because in-person activities were restricted and mail services were overwhelmed.
But four years later, the Republican Party of Mississippi, the Republican National Committee, and several others sued to have the law repealed, arguing that it conflicted with federal law.
The ruling is a loss for Trump, who has long railed against mail-in ballot voting and vowed to get rid of the voting method for good.
On Truth Social, the president demanded that Congress pass the SAVE America Act, requiring voter photo I.D., voter citizenship and restricting mail-in ballot voting, in response to the court’s ruling.
“In light of the tremendous loss in the Supreme Court today concerning Voter’s Rights, and the fact that ‘people’s’ votes are allowed to be counted LONG AFTER an Election is over, it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” he wrote.
Mail-in ballots tend to skew in favor of Democratic candidates because Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, according to data collected during the 2024 election.
But Trump has misrepresented mail-in ballot voting as a method for Democrats to “cheat,” despite there being no evidence of mass voter fraud by mail.
Earlier this month, Trump criticized California’s policy of counting ballots days after Election Day, claiming Democrats were trying to “steal” primary elections there. “The Dumocrats are at it again!” the 80-year-old Republican wrote on Truth Social. “Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of mail in ballots.”
The ruling is likely to impact other states with similar laws, including Alaska, California, D.C., Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Several U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, also allow for ballots to be counted after Election Day.
Multiple voting rights groups and Democratic officials welcomed the high court’s decision.
“A ballot mailed on time is a vote cast on time, and the Court just affirmed what’s been true for over a century,” Sophia Lin Lakin, the director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said in a statement.
“The right to vote has been a sacred promise for generations. All eligible Americans should be able to exercise that constitutional right, free from roadblocks and unnecessary restrictions,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a press release. “Those who cast their ballots on time in accordance with state laws should never be afraid that their vote will not be counted.”
Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on X that the decision brings “relief,” but he warned that concerns remain about the administration’s “overreach,” including Trump’s refusal to rule out sending federal agents to polling places.
Monday’s ruling is just the latest in a series of decisions that will impact the upcoming midterm elections. In April, the court stripped a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult to challenge a congressional map on racial discrimination grounds.
Also on Monday, the court handed Trump another setback by rejecting his bid, at least for now, to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook. In a separate case, the justices gave him more room to assert control over other independent federal agencies.
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