U.S. Supreme Court allows ballots received after Election Day to be counted

Ballots in Washington and a dozen other states received after Election Day can continue to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

In a 5-4 ruling announced Monday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson upheld a Mississippi election law that allows ballots received by mail to be counted up to five days after Election Day.

The ruling means there will be no change to the deadline to submit ballots in Washington.

“The electorate’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received,” Coney Barret wrote in the decision.

Washington is one of 13 other states – along with the District of Columbia – where ballots are counted as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day.

The case was closely watched by candidates, political parties and election officials in Washington, who worried that thousands of votes could be invalidated in the November election due to late arrival.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said Monday she was “relieved” by the decision, and a recent federal court ruling that blocked the U.S. Postal Service from requiring states to submit lists of eligible voters who can receive ballots.

“I am very pleased with the opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court upholding that vote-by-mail states can continue to receive and count ballots after the election if those ballots have been postmarked by Election Day,” Dalton said. “I’m really happy to see that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, essentially, states’ rights.”

Dalton said military and overseas voters would have been “seriously impacted” had the court required ballots be received by Election Day in order to be counted.

“It’s tough enough in the U.S. with the delivery times of the U.S. Postal Service now, but for anyone who has mailed from overseas, they know how long it can take for mail to travel from another part of the world to the U.S.,” Dalton said. “So that would have really impacted our overseas civilians and our military voters.”

In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump called the ruling a “tremendous loss” and urged Congress to pass the SAVE act. The legislation, which has passed the House of Representatives but stalled in the U.S. Senate, would require voters to show photo ID to submit a ballot and prove they are U.S. citizens each time they register to vote.

Trump also called for the U.S. to end vote by mail, except if illness, disability, travel or military deployment prevents someone from voting in person.

The ruling on Monday drew praise from a collection of Washington state officials, who said it would ensure residents will have their votes counted and protect the state’s election system.

Following the ruling, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a provided statement that the decision was “a victory for all Washington voters.”

“The ruling upholds our longstanding ballot return rules, which support accessible and fair elections,” Hobbs said.

Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown called the decision a “major win for voters and a firm rebuke of Donald Trump’s strategy to take control of states’ voting systems.”

“The court made clear what I and others have been saying: ‘Nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by election day.’ State laws govern when ballots must be received and counted,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “It’s not the President’s business.”

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said in a statement Monday the Supreme Court “affirmed what we have known all along: states have the right to set rules for counting ballots when they are received.”

“The Supreme Court affirmed both a key element of by-mail voting and the constitutional authority of states to administer their elections,” Cantwell said.

In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “what the election-day statutes demand is that this authoritative choice be made on election day.”

“If ballots received after election day are added to the set of ballots that dictate the election’s outcome, the electorate’s choice does not occur on election day, and the federal election-day statutes are violated,” Alito wrote.

Alito was joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.

Jim Walsh, a state representative who chairs the state Republican Party, said he was “disappointed but not deterred” by the ruling, and called on the state to “redouble efforts to reform state election law and practices.”

“We need more secure elections in WA,” he posted on social media.