Supreme Court to Rule on Post-Election Day Ballots

The Supreme Court is set to address whether states can count ballots received after Election Day.

On Monday, the justices agreed to hear the case Watson v. Republican National Committee. This case challenges a Mississippi law that permits absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be accepted if they arrive within five days afterward.

The crux of the issue is whether federal law about election dates restricts states from accepting ballots beyond that deadline. Almost 30 states, along with the District of Columbia, have laws similar to Mississippi’s regarding late ballot acceptance.

HUGE: The Supreme Court will take up the case we won and decide whether counting ballots received after Election Day is illegal. @judicialwatchagain, hard work for clean elections! https://t.co/axbp7cO6sC

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) November 10, 2025

Initially, Mississippi instituted rules for absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic but later made these rules permanent. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals previously determined that Mississippi’s allowance for ballots received after Election Day is “preempted by federal law.”

Missouri’s attorney general expressed concerns in the state’s petition, stating, “The decisions below risk inviting nationwide litigation against the law in most states and disrupting the next federal election, especially given the propensity of election law claims to trigger last-minute litigation.” He added that there are fewer than 18 months to go until the next federal election, although the state election process starts much sooner.

The Republican National Committee argues that the Fifth Circuit’s ruling was appropriate. “Many states cannot conclude their elections weeks after Election Day because they continue to receive ballots from voters,” the committee stated in their filing with the Supreme Court. “Even weeks after ‘Election Day’ has passed, elections are still ongoing in these states.”