The Supreme Court could issue a ruling as soon as this week that would force more than a dozen states to stop counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a decision with immediate consequences for California and other vote-by-mail states heading into midterm season.
The case centers on a Mississippi law permitting mail-in ballots to be counted if postmarked by Election Day and received within five days afterward. The Republican National Committee and several conservative organizations challenged the statute, arguing it conflicts with a federal law that designates the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as “election day” for federal contests. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Mississippi’s five-day grace period, and the Supreme Court agreed to take up the matter, hearing oral arguments in late March.
Observers at those arguments said the high court appeared ready to rule against the grace period.
More than a dozen states and Washington, D.C. have adopted similar post-Election Day deadlines, though the exact windows differ. California automatically mails ballots to all of its roughly 23 million registered voters and accepts ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day through the following Tuesday. The state’s counting process routinely runs for days after polls close. As of Monday, about 1.6 million ballots from the June 2 primaries remained unprocessed, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.
President Trump drew attention to the delays Sunday in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” criticizing the state’s extended counting in both the governor’s race and the Los Angeles mayoral contest.
“It’s four days and they aren’t even close,” Trump said. “Because they’re cheating on the election.” Trump did not provide specific evidence of fraud.
Conservative legal groups filed amicus briefs in support of the challenge. Lawyers for Citizens United argued the longer a ballot-collection window remains open, the more vulnerable it is to manipulation.
“The longer the period over which the election is conducted, the greater the opportunity for and risk of fraud,” they wrote in a February brief. “Some states are determined to extend election day, both before and after, transforming a day into an election season, providing numerous opportunities for all manner of election manipulation.”
Opponents of the restriction, including military advocacy organizations, argued eliminating grace periods would effectively disenfranchise service members and overseas voters who have no control over mail delivery timelines.
A February analysis by VoteBeat found approximately 373,000 California ballots in the 2024 election arrived after Election Day with valid postmarks, roughly 2.3 percent of the state’s total vote.
Even if the court invalidates the grace periods, the ruling’s immediate effect remains an open question. Under the Purcell principle, federal courts typically avoid altering election rules close to a scheduled vote to prevent voter confusion. A ruling that takes effect before November’s midterms could leave states scrambling to update procedures on short notice.
