The Supreme Court is rejecting a Republican-led attack on state laws that allow the counting of late-arriving mail ballots, a persistent target of President Donald Trump.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of President Donald Trump.

The 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.

  • lIlIlIlIlIlIl
    41·
    21 hours ago

    CAN, not MUST.

    This means sane states will count them, Nazi states will throw them in the garbage.

    Handle your business accordingly.

    • cattywampas
      30·
      21 hours ago

      States run their own elections, as has always been the case, and as it should always be. They also must be postmarked by election day.

      • lIlIlIlIlIlIl
        92·
        21 hours ago

        So why was there a Supreme Court ruling on this if the fed has nothing to do with states elections?

        If today the Supreme Court had alternately said states must NOT accept ballots postmarked by election day but received later, that would have affected the way states handle their elections, right? Or am I missing something?

        • dogslayeggs
          21·
          21 hours ago

          You aren’t missing anything. Republicans sued and lost, then appealed their obvious loss up through the courts until it hit the SC. The SC ruled that the Constitution is clear that states run their elections. If they had ruled the other way, the chaos would have been… interesting.

        • cattywampas
          20·
          21 hours ago

          Because that’s how the court system works. Somebody (in this case the RNC) sued and it was appealed up to higher court levels. Because this is a Constitutional issue as election management is explicitly given to the states in the Constitution, SCOTUS took it up and made a ruling.

          And yes if they had ruled the other way it would have affected elections, although it would have affected all states equally. At the end of the day the deadline is arbitrary anyway, we just have to pick what it is.