The Supreme Court’s conservative justices on Monday appeared poised to strike down state laws allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they arrive after Election Day, in a case that could affect voters in 14 states plus the District of Columbia ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
During more than two hours of oral arguments in Watson v. Republican National Committee, the court’s conservative majority appeared skeptical of Mississippi’s law requiring mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted within five business days of the election . The Republican National Committee brought the lawsuit in 2024, putting into jeopardy similar grace periods in 13 other states .
Justice Brett Kavanaugh questioned whether late-arriving ballots risk undermining election confidence , while Justice Sonia Sotomayor said “the people who should decide this issue are not the courts but Congress” . Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson countered that “we have a very long history of states having a variety of different ballot receipt deadlines, to include after Election Day” .
Mail voting accounted for 30% of all votes cast in the 2024 election , serving as “a lifeline for working people, seniors, rural communities, and deployed service members” . California, Texas, New York and Illinois are among the states with post-Election Day deadlines, and Alaska also counts late-arriving ballots . A ruling is expected by late June, early enough to govern the counting of ballots in the 2026 midterm congressional elections .