Supreme Court Rules 5-4 to Preserve Mississippi Mail-Ballot Grace Period

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision affirming Mississippi’s law that permits election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day even when they arrive up to five days later. The majority opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, held that state statutes set the voting deadline but do not dictate when ballots must be received.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, warning that the ruling raises complex election-law issues and could affect public confidence in election integrity.

Mississippi is among 18 states and territories that maintain such grace periods, many of which are led by Democratic officials. The case stemmed from a broader Republican challenge, backed by the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, asserting that post-Election Day receipt rules conflict with constitutional provisions that assign election timing to Congress. Lower courts had dismissed most similar lawsuits, though the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had previously sided with the challengers, prompting the Supreme Court review.

State officials in Democratic-run states have expressed concern that eliminating grace periods could disenfranchise voters in areas with slower mail service. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs noted that more than 250,000 ballots postmarked on time arrived after Election Day in the 2024 election, suggesting that a strict receipt deadline would have prevented those votes from being counted.