The court rejected Republicans’ argument that federal law prevails over a Mississippi law permitting late-arriving ballots.
By Catholics for Catholics
On Monday, the Supreme Court sustained Mississippi’s grace period for tardy-arriving mail-in ballots, snubbing an effort by the Trump administration to nullify a state law.
The court’s ruling indicates Mississippi’s law, which permits elections officials to count ballots postmarked by Election Day and received up to five business days later, will remain in effect, at least through the midterm elections, according to a story by The Epoch Times.
Mississippi law allows counting of mail-in ballots received within a five-day grace period after Election Day. The statute was enacted in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide flexibility to voters.
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the court’s three liberals in supporting the state law.
According to the Epoch Times’ story, federal law sets the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in particular years as Election Day for federal offices. A presidential election takes place every four years; a congressional election happens every two years.
On social media, President Donald Trump roasted the new ruling, calling it a “tremendous loss … concerning Voter’s Rights” that allows votes to be counted “LONG AFTER an Election is over.”
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that the ruling shows “it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” which is currently postponed in the U.S. Senate. That legislation would require all voters to show some photo ID and proof of U.S. citizenship, and would ban mail-in ballots except in the case of illness, disability, military deployment, or travel, he added.
Still, federal Election Day law focuses on when ballots must be cast, as opposed to when they must be received by election officials to count.
Eighteen states accept mailed ballots received after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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