The US Supreme Court has ruled that states may continue counting postal ballots received after Election Day, provided they were postmarked by the day of the election, rejecting a challenge backed by the Trump administration by a narrow margin.
In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld a Mississippi law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted if they arrive within five days afterwards, reports BBC.
The ruling represents a significant setback for President Donald Trump and Republicans, who argued that federal law requires ballots to be both cast and received by Election Day.
Trump, a long-time critic of mail-in voting, described the judgment as a “tremendous loss” and renewed calls for tighter voting restrictions.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberal justices. Barrett said federal election laws specify Election Day but do not require ballots to be received by that date.
“The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose,” Barrett wrote.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito argued that accepting ballots after Election Day effectively extends the election period and could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
“Today’s decision leaves open opportunities for voter fraud that may further undermine Americans’ faith in the integrity of this country’s election,” Alito wrote.
The case centred on a Republican National Committee-led challenge to Mississippi’s ballot deadline.
Backed by the Trump administration, Republicans argued that an 1845 federal statute establishing Election Day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November requires ballots to be received by that date.
The Supreme Court rejected that interpretation, preserving similar ballot receipt rules in more than a dozen states, including California, Nevada, Virginia, Texas and Alaska.
Trump responded by urging lawmakers to pass the proposed Save America Act, which would require photo identification and proof of citizenship for voters and sharply restrict mail-in voting to limited circumstances such as illness, disability, military service or travel.
“There is only one reason to oppose — cheating,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Speaking later at the White House, Trump called the ruling “very detrimental to honest elections” and repeated his long-standing criticism of mail voting, despite having cast a mail-in ballot himself in a Florida special election earlier this year.
Republican National Committee chairman Joe Gruters criticised the decision, saying it would allow elections to “drag on for days and weeks after voters cast their ballots” and pledged that Republicans would continue efforts to require election results to be based solely on ballots received by Election Day.
Democratic officials welcomed the ruling. California Governor Gavin Newsom called it “a win for voters”, saying it would help ensure that legitimate ballots are counted and voters’ voices are heard.
Despite Trump’s claims of heavy fraud in mail-ballots, studies found such cases to be rare.
According to a study, released by the Brookings Institution in November last year, researchers found that the last five US elections had an average of four cases of mail voting fraud out of every 10mn votes.
