A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday that elections officials can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they were postmarked before that date.
The decision rejects a move by the Republican National Committee which challenged a Mississippi law allowing the counting of late arrivals, and is also seen as a setback for President Donald Trump.
🚨 In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that federal law does not require mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day, holding that states may count ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward if state law allows it. pic.twitter.com/j0QiGwhHUM
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) June 29, 2026
Eighteen American states and territories have similar grace periods for mail-in ballots.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored Monday’s opinion, as she joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s left-leaning branch of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Journalist Nick Sortor called the ruling “BEYOND insane,” adding, “This means states like California can CONTINUE taking WEEKS to count ballots after Election Day.”
“Yet ANOTHER reason the SAVE America Act must be passed NOW!”
🚨 BREAKING: The US Supreme Court ruled states CAN accept mail-in ballots AFTER Election Day, 5-4
Yet ANOTHER reason the SAVE America Act must be passed NOW!
This means states like California can CONTINUE taking WEEKS to count ballots after Election Day
BEYOND insane.
Barrett… pic.twitter.com/S0Fc4bALva
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 29, 2026
Jonathan Turley, constitutional law scholar at George Washington University, told Fox News: “I think this is a significant loss for Republicans who have wanted to try to rein in the way that we do our elections. California, of course, is the nightmare where you can go for weeks without a decision.
“And Justice Alito really lashes out and says this undermines the integrity of the process, the faith in the process of voters. And that is a sentiment that is shared by many. But what the court is saying is that you can’t use this federal law to achieve that purpose. That there is room at the elbows here for states like Mississippi to count ballots that have been postmarked before Election Day.
“That means it shifts attention back to Congress, also to the state legislators to determine whether they want to politically go forward and say we need to clean this process up. We need to bring back a certain degree of certainty and clarity that doesn’t allow this open-ended process we see in California.”
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