Supreme Court rules states can count late-arriving mailed ballots,
rejecting Trump-led challenge
[June 30, 2026]
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can
count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of
President Donald Trump.
The 5-4 decision rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than
half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots
to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election,
provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares
officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months
before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
In just over half those states, the more forgiving deadlines apply only
to ballots cast by military and overseas voters.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the court's majority opinion, joined by
Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices.
Federal laws setting a single Election Day “leave open when those votes
must be received,” Barrett wrote.
Congress could change the law, she said. “If varied deadlines for ballot
receipt similarly call for a national solution, the American people must
choose it through their elected representatives,” Barrett wrote.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the dissent for four justices. “Not only is
today’s decision inconsistent with statutory text, legal context,
historical practice, and precedent; it also threatens to produce
lamentable consequences," Alito wrote. “The majority’s holding spawns a
slurry of troubling election-law questions and risks further undermining
Americans’ confidence in election integrity.”
The legal challenge was part of Trump’s broader attack on most mail
balloting, which he has said breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the
contrary and years of experience in numerous states. Trump has
repeatedly claimed that his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 resulted from
fraud even though more than 60 court decisions and his own attorney
general said that argument had no merit.
Trump called the court ruling a “tremendous loss” and renewed his call
for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which has made it through the
House of Representatives but not the Senate.
“There is only one reason to oppose — CHEATING!” Trump wrote on Truth
Social.
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Department of Elections workers sort mail-in ballots for the
California primary election at City Hall on Tuesday, June 2, 2026,
in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Among other changes, the legislation would limit who is able to
receive a mail ballot and impose a documentary proof-of-citizenship
requirement for registering to vote.
“If we want fair and secure elections, Election Day should mean
exactly what it says, which is why this decision makes it even more
imperative that Congress pass the SAVE America Act,” RNC Chairman
Joe Gruters said in a statement.
The court heard arguments in March in a case from Mississippi
pitting the state against Trump’s Republican administration and the
Republican and Libertarian parties. At issue was whether federal law
sets a single Election Day that requires ballots to be both cast by
voters and received by state officials.
The federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down a Mississippi
law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrive within five
business days of the election and are postmarked by Election Day.
The outcome is a “sigh of relief” for a lot of election
administrators, said Stephen Richer, a Republican and the former top
election administrator in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes
Phoenix.
A ruling in favor of the Republican National Committee "would have
created a whole host of administrative challenges for the affected
states,” said Richer, who is now a legal fellow at the Cato
Institute.
RNC officials did not immediately respond Monday to email and
telephone requests for comment.
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