Controversy
Status:Open
Will the U.S. Supreme Court Conclude Mail-In Ballots Cannot be Counted After Election Day?
UNLIKELYLIKELY
Claims
James E. Graves Jr."Federal law does not mandate that ballots be received by state officials before Election Day's conclusion, and the panel's contrary holding is erroneous."Mar 20, 2025
Snell & Wilmer"Fifth Circuit’s interpretation will require Mississippi to amend or abandon its five-business-day receipt grace period for federal races and will likely call into question similar laws in other states that allow ballots to arrive after election day."Dec 03, 2025
Vikram D. Amar"We think there is a good chance the Supreme Court will undertake review, and reverse the Fifth Circuit so that the ruling won’t have any effect even in the states covered by the Fifth Circuit."Dec 23, 2025
Tom Fitton"The Supreme Court should uphold the historic decision by the Fifth Circuit that sensibly concluded that counting ballots received after Election Day is unlawful.”Nov 10, 2025
Michael Watson“[R]espondents have cited nothing—no judicial decision, no legislative finding, no legislator’s statement, no treatise, nothing—to show that any State imposed an election-day ballot receipt deadline because it thought the federal election-day statutes require it.”Aug 25, 2025
RNC“The Fifth Circuit correctly held that the federal election day is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials.”Aug 11, 2025
Lynn Fitch“[Banning post-election day mail in votes] defies statutory text, conflicts with this court’s precedent, and—if left to stand—will have destabilizing nationwide ramifications.”Nov 11, 2025
Joe Gruters"We hope the Supreme Court will affirm the Fifth Circuit's landmark decision that mail-in ballots received after Election Day cannot be counted."Dec 23, 2025
Biden Department of Justice"When adopting UOCAVA and the MOVE Act, Congress declined to specify a ballot receipt deadline,
expressly deferring instead to individual state laws."Dec 23, 2025
Louis Guirola Jr.“Congress set a national election day to avoid the ‘evils’ of burdening citizens with multiple election days and of risking undue influence upon voters in one state from the announced tallies in states voting earlier. Neither of those concerns,” he concluded, “is raised by allowing a reasonable interval for ballots cast and postmarked by election day to arrive by mail.”Nov 11, 2025
Andrew Oldham“Federal law requires voters to take timely steps to vote by Election Day,”Nov 21, 2025
Marc Elias"The Fifth Circuit’s analysis runs counter to the plain text of the federal laws it interprets."Dec 23, 2025
Richard H. Bernstein"The counting and announcing by election officials, everyone agrees, need not occur within the time for the election itself."Oct 13, 2025
Richard Hasen"My hope and expectation is that the Supreme Court took this case to reverse it and let Mississippi make the policy choice to accept ballots postmarked by Election Day."Nov 12, 2025
American Civil Liberties Union"This lawsuit by partisan actors seeks to disenfranchise these voters whose ballot is mailed by Election Day but—through no fault of their own."Sep 10, 2024
Kimberly Jones Merchant"The Supreme Court should correct the misguided decision of the appellate court and allow states to continue giving voters a reasonable opportunity to have their absentee ballots counted.”Dec 23, 2025
© 2025 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.18.0
© 2025 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 6.18.0