The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether states can count mail ballots received after Election Day but postmarked by then, a question that could shift results in close races. Nevada and Alaska are among the states that use grace periods, and both face u
On a warm afternoon in Montgomery, Alabama, protesters gathered to oppose a Supreme Court decision they fear will weaken protections tied to Black voting rights.
Across the country, the stakes are different but the timing is the same. In Nevada, up to 2% of mail ballots arrived during a grace period after Election Day in 2024. In Alaska. bush pilots often have to work through brutal November weather to deliver ballots in a state where many voters are cut off from roads—and some ballots may arrive after polls close.
Those ballots could decide close elections.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of its session. typically in June. on whether election officials can accept ballots received after Election Day. For voters in parts of the West. where mail voting has become increasingly common. grace periods are the difference between ballots reaching election offices on time and ballots arriving after the deadline—even if they were marked before Election Day.
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said the issue matters in precisely the places where races are tight.
“Given the tight races of a battleground state, that’s pretty significant,” Aguilar said in an interview.
Nevada and Alaska are among 14 states that use a grace period—where election officials accept and count a mailed ballot received after Election Day if it is postmarked on or before Election Day (sometimes only before). Nearly a dozen additional states provide extra time for military and overseas ballots to arrive.
“The tight races of a battleground state” is the practical argument, but Aguilar’s concern goes further. He said the case could harm voters across the political map.
“We know that mail ballots are the adopted choice of voters in Nevada; several other states across the country as well,” Aguilar said, adding that mail in ballots are popular in red and blue counties. “You’re not only hurting Democrats, you’re also hurting Republicans.”
In 2024. a federal appeals court ruled in a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee that century-old federal laws setting a “day for the election” prohibit states’ mail ballot grace periods. The case challenged Mississippi’s law allowing elections officials to count ballots if they are received within five days of the election.
Although the case started in Mississippi, the Supreme Court’s ruling could apply nationally. Depending on how the justices rule, ballots that can be counted could shift months before the midterm elections.
Ally Triolo, the RNC’s election integrity communications director, framed the issue narrowly.
“Watson v. RNC is about enforcing a simple, commonsense standard that is the law: ballots must be received by Election Day to count,” Triolo said.
But Aguilar argued the case is not just about deadlines—it’s about electoral leverage.
“It’s creating confusion among voters in very particular important states. We know that the White House runs through Nevada and they’re trying to impact the ’28 election,” he said.
How the fight is supposed to fit into the American election system may come down to who gets to set the rules.
Nevada and other states. along with advocacy groups who intervened in the lawsuit. argue the Constitution gives state legislatures the authority to establish the times. places. and manner of holding elections. The Constitution also allows Congress to set the date of federal elections. which it did in 1845 as the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit that works with election officials to bolster election security and integrity, said Congress has long recognized that states need room to tailor elections.
More broadly, Becker said, many laws have been in place for decades and Congress has had time to respond if it was concerned.
“It’s quite reasonable for states to consider the unique characteristics of their state. how long the mail might take in their states. how different areas in their state might experience longer delays. ” Becker said. “This is exactly why the founders were so wise to give the states the authority to regulate the time. place. and manner of elections. because not every place is Washington. DC. not every place is New York City. not every place is Dallas. Texas.”.
Becker also pointed to a key counterweight: for most states, the share of ballots affected may be small. A survey of election officials conducted by the nonpartisan independent news outlet VoteBeat found that between 0.1% and 3% of ballots—depending on the state—are received during grace periods.
But in a close election, even a small percentage can be enough to decide the outcome.
“The percentage of ballots that are received after Election Day, delivered by the Postal Service after Election Day, is relatively small compared to the overall number of mail ballots, but it could be outcome determinative,” Becker said.
That risk is amplified in Alaska, where the geography turns “delivery time” into a matter of survival.
Tens of thousands of Alaska voters, especially Native Alaskans, live in areas that cannot be reached by road. There are few post offices and often no polling locations, according to Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project.
His group works to engage voters on environmental issues, and it plans to mobilize to contact some of those far-flung Alaska voters if the Supreme Court ends the grace periods.
Stinnett said Alaska elected officials have not taken a side in the case, but the attorney general filed a brief in January outlining the difficulties of voting in such a large state.
Even with the state’s 10-day grace period. Stinnett said getting a ballot back in time to be counted can come down to weather. He said ballots are mailed 25 days before the election. It can take 10 days for them to reach certain communities and another 10 days to get them back to election officials. leaving little room for disruptions like storms that close polling places or ground planes.
“In Alaska, these mail ballot grace periods aren’t merely a convenience. They’re essential for participating in democracy,” Stinnett said. “What many people don’t understand is that unlike you and I. who can just walk to a mailbox on the corner and know that our ballot will be picked up a few hours later. some Alaskans only hope for getting their vote counted hinges on a brave bush pilot finding a rare day of perfect weather. And believe me, October in the Arctic is no picnic.”.
Stinnett said it can be enough to sway elections. In 2024, he said 6,979 ballots came in during the grace period, citing the VoteBeat survey.
He tied the margin of that number to the reality of Alaska’s recent political contests. In 2024, Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat, lost reelection by 7,876 votes. This November, she is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“This is absolutely a difference making number of votes,” Stinnett said.
The Supreme Court’s decision, expected in June, will determine whether those votes are counted when they arrive—just after Election Day—even if they were set in motion by postmarks made on time.
For voters who rely on the mail to reach them across long distances, the question isn’t abstract. It’s whether a deadline that fits one kind of geography can hold up in the vastness where the weather and the delivery system set the terms.
Supreme Court mail ballot grace period Election Day deadline Nevada Francisco Aguilar Alaska voting RNC lawsuit Watson v. RNC Voting Rights Act absentee ballots VoteBeat survey