Supreme Court OKs late-arriving mailed ballots in loss for Trump

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on June 29 said Mississippi can count late-arriving mail-in ballots, handing a defeat to President Donald Trump, who is trying to curtail voting by mail.

The court upheld a state law allowing ballots cast by Election Day to be counted if they’re received within five days.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's three liberal justices in backing the law.

"The question today is not whether requiring ballots to be received by election day is a good or bad idea; the question is whether the idea has made its way into the United States Code," Barrett wrote for the 5-4 majority.

And federal law, she concluded, dictates only that voters make a choice by a specific day, not that their ballots must be received on that day.

In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito said accepting late-arriving ballots "effectively postpones the date on which the electorate's choice is made, and federal law precludes that postponement."

"Allowing absentee ballots to pour in over the days and weeks after election day, by which point preliminary elections returns are being publicly reported, creates greater opportunity for fraud and risks further undermining the public's confidence in election integrity," he wrote.

More than a dozen states have laws similar to Mississippi. Additional states allow late-arriving ballots from military and overseas voters. Voting by mail has decreased since its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. But nearly 30% of voters still cast a ballot that way in the 2024 elections.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to vote by mail.

Trump has targeted mail-in voting

Supporters of mail-in voting say it makes it easier for people – including retirees, service members and rural residents – to cast a ballot. And grace periods prevent people from losing their vote over postal service delays.

But Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as vulnerable to fraud, despite casting a ballot by mail himself in March. He has claimed without evidence that mail-in voting cost him the 2020 election.

Trump has separately tried to end both grace periods and mail-in voting altogether through both an executive order and by pressuring Congress to pass legislation.

He called Monday's decision a “tremendous loss," and urged Congress to act.

“There can be no more excuses!” Trump wrote on social media.

The Justice Department backed challenges brought by both the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party to Mississippi’s law.

“Republicans are not going to be deterred by this decision, and the (Republican National Committee) will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day as Americans want,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement.

What is an election?

The legal argument turned on the definition of when an election has occurred, because federal law sets a specific date for U.S. elections.

The Republican Party and the Trump administration said that an election is the day by which ballots must be received.

Mississippi said the election is when voters choose a candidate, so a ballot cast in the mail by Election Day can be received after.

Risk of fraud?

Documented instances of fraud related to voting by mail are rare, according to the Election Data & Science Lab from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A 2025 report from the Brookings Institution estimated there are about four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail-in votes.

But when ballots counted after Election Day affect the outcome of a race, that can raise doubts about their legitimacy even when there is no fraud, critics argue.

"If the election is going to turn on late-arriving ballots in a way that means what everybody kind of thought was the result on Election Day ends up being the opposite a week later, 21 days later, the losers are not going to accept that result," Paul Clement, the attorney for the Republican Party, told the Supreme Court. "And that is bad for our system."

Barrett said such concerns much be addressed through Congress and the democratic process.

"If varied deadlines for ballot receipt...call for a national solution, the American people must choose it through their elected representatives," she wrote.

NAACP praises decision

Voting-rights groups praised the court's decision, with NAACP President Derrick Johnson calling the ruling “a win for our democracy.”

Kase Solomon, CEO of Common Cause, said Congress needs to approve nationwide protections for voters.

“Vote by mail is such a useful voting tool, even the president uses it," Solomon said.

Not the only election-related case

The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, is not the only election-related matter the justices considered this term.

In a landmark decision, the court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, prompting GOP-led states to scramble to draw new congressional maps benefiting Republicans.

The justices are also deciding whether to overturn restrictions on coordinated spending between parties and candidates, another change sought by Republicans.