Supreme Court backs Mississippi mail ballots postmarked in advance

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by the Republican National Committee and upheld Mississippi’s law allowing election officials to count certain mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked beforehand—dealing a b

When the Supreme Court issued its decision, the immediate question wasn’t just legal—it was practical: can state election workers keep counting mail ballots after Election Day, as long as those ballots were mailed on time? The justices answered yes.

In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge brought by the Republican National Committee. The court said the Mississippi law at the center of the case does not violate the federal mandate establishing Election Day in early November. Under the law. election officials may count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked before Election Day.

The stakes are bigger than one state’s rules. Nearly 20 states, including Mississippi, have similar “ballot grace periods,” according to NPR, meaning today’s decision could affect how election administrators in multiple jurisdictions handle late-arriving mail ballots.

For the Trump administration, the ruling lands as a setback. The administration has argued—without evidence—that allowing mail-in ballots can lead to widespread voter fraud. The court’s decision, by contrast, treated Mississippi’s approach as consistent with federal election timing requirements.

The Supreme Court’s ruling also comes against a backdrop of past election results and political fight-lines over mail voting. NBC News reported that in the 2024 election, hundreds of thousands of voters had used late-arriving mail-in ballots. NBC described the number as “a small but notable proportion of the total vote count.”.

The fight over how election deadlines work has been years in the making, and this case reflects that hardening. Republicans have pursued challenges to mail-ballot grace periods since before the 2024 presidential election. At that time, the RNC and the Trump campaign filed legal challenges, arguing that grace periods were unconstitutional.

Their central argument was constitutional, not logistical. They said Congress—not the states—sets when an election ends.

That dispute moved quickly through the courts. In October 2024, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the RNC and ruled Mississippi’s law unconstitutional. The 5th Circuit sent the issue back to a lower court for further consideration, and the case later reached the Supreme Court.

While the lawsuit was winding through the federal courts, the Trump administration also tried to tighten federal rules. Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring all votes be received by Election Day in federal elections. Federal courts later blocked that order.

Put together. the case shows how timing—what counts as “in” and when—has become a central battleground in American elections. The Supreme Court’s decision means that for now. at least under the logic the justices applied. states can keep counting certain mail ballots even after Election Day. as long as the critical condition—postmarking before Election Day—is met.

Supreme Court Mississippi mail-in ballots Election Day postmarked RNC Trump administration voter fraud claims 5th Circuit executive order