The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a case challenging state laws that allow mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted.
The case originated in Mississippi, where the Republican National Committee challenged a law allowing mail-in ballots that are received up to five business days after Election Day to be counted. The ballots must also be postmarked by the election’s date.
The 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals ruled in favor of the RNC last fall, deciding, “Federal law requires voters to take timely steps to vote by Election Day. And federal law does not permit the State of Mississippi to extend the period for voting by one day, five days, or 100 days. The State’s contrary law is preempted.”
The appeals court cited the Constitution’s Article II, Section 1, clause 4, and wrote, “‘The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors’ for president.”
In addition, Congress passed a law in 1845, establishing “uniform time” for appointing presidential electors as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
The Center Square reported that 31 states and the District of Columbia allow the counting of mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day, if they are properly postmarked.
The Trump administration supported the 5th Circuit’s ruling, with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon posting about the case on the social media platform X.
“Election Day means Election DAY! Stay tuned!” she wrote.
👀
Election Day means Election DAY! Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/GBgshWWXd1
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) November 10, 2025
Should Election Day be a federal holiday?
“In June, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue,” Politico reported.
In her petition to the court, Fitch claimed the question is, “whether the federal election-day statutes preempt a state law that allows ballots that are cast by federal election day to be received by election officials after that day.”
“The Fifth Circuit in this case held that the federal laws setting the federal ‘election’ day preempt a Mississippi law allowing absentee ballots cast by election day to be received shortly after that day,” she contended. “That ruling defies statutory text, conflicts with this Court’s precedent, and — if left to stand — will have destabilizing nationwide ramifications.”
BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court to hear case determining if states can count mail-in ballots that are received AFTER Election Day.
18 states currently allow late ballots to be counted.
THIS IS MASSIVE. pic.twitter.com/WHQtMwdl43
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 10, 2025
The high court’s justices will have to decide whether a postmarked ballot satisfies the requirement of a ballot being cast by Election Day.
Oral arguments are expected to take place next year and a decision will be handed down before the 2026 midterm elections.
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