Supreme Court Signals New Limits on Late Mail Ballots

The Supreme Court's conservative majority appeared ready to bar counting of ballots arriving after Election Day in a challenge to Mississippi's law.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a Republican National Committee challenge to a Mississippi law that allows tabulation of absentee ballots arriving up to five days after polls close. ABC News reports the court's conservative majority appeared sympathetic to the RNC's argument that federal law sets a single Election Day for ballot submission and receipt. Justice Neil Gorsuch framed the dispute as a question of "receipt by whom," while Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito voiced skepticism of state grace periods, Alito remarking that "we don't have Election Day anymore. We have election month."

The stakes are national: according to ABC News, thirty states plus the District of Columbia provide grace periods for late-arriving ballots, including for military voters relying on the Postal Service. Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots arrived after Election Day in 2024 but were still legally counted across 22 states and territories, per the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a figure reported by ABC News. Voting rights advocates warn that an abrupt ruling could lead to widespread rejection of ballots cast on time but delayed in delivery, while Republicans argue limits would bolster election integrity ahead of November.

The court's three liberal justices pushed back on the challenge. Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued the Constitution vests election rules in the states, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted Congress has never sought to override the decades-old practice of counting timely-cast, late-arriving ballots. Justice Elena Kagan warned the RNC's logic could also implicate early voting, asking how it avoids taking issue with that. ABC News also reports Justice Amy Coney Barrett probed whether states could legally allow mailed ballots to be recalled and changed, a prospect Mississippi's solicitor general could not document ever occurring.

The mail-ballot case sits alongside a second major election-and-migration docket item: on Tuesday, the court also heard the Trump administration's bid to revive its "turn back" asylum policy, with the administration arguing a person stopped in Mexico has not "arrived in the United States," ABC7 Los Angeles reports. Immigrant advocates, including Al Otro Lado's Nicole Ramos, countered that the right to seek asylum at the border is both a legal and moral right. Decisions in both cases are expected by the end of June, putting a definitive ruling on late ballots well before the November vote.