There’s been an interesting development in the ongoing Republican challenge to Mississippi’s ballot receipt deadline law that could have major national implications: Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) appears poised to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to determine if the state’s ballot receipt deadline violates federal law.
Should the nation’s highest court strike down Mississippi’s law, it would likely mean a nationwide ban on states accepting ballots that arrive after Election Day, potentially disenfranchising a large number of voters across the country.
No petition has yet been filed with the Supreme Court. But a federal court paused proceedings this week in the lawsuit and wrote that the case will remain paused because Mississippi plans to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue.
Under Mississippi law, all mail-in ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day are counted, so long as they are received within five business days of the election. But in January 2024, the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Mississippi Republican Party and several voters sued to overturn the law, arguing that the five-day deadline “effectively extends Mississippi’s federal election past the Election Day established by Congress” and results in “valid ballots” being “diluted by untimely, invalid ballots.”
In their lawsuit, the RNC alleged that Mississippi’s mail-ballot receipt deadline violates the First and 14th Amendments, as well as federal law, which they argued sets “one specific day as the uniform, national Election Day for federal office.” The plaintiffs asked the court to strike down the law so that any mail-in ballots received after Election Day will be tossed out.
In July, a district court upheld Mississippi’s deadline, but the RNC appealed the case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court reversed the lower court’s decision in October, declaring that Mississippi’s mail-in ballot receipt deadline violates federal law. The ruling didn’t apply to the 2024 election because the 5th Circuit sent the case back to trial court to determine how to implement it.
Currently 17 states, along with Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., count mail-in ballots if they’re postmarked on or before Election Day but received after. California, Texas, Ohio, and Nevada are among that group.
Among the many provisions in Trump’s executive order targeting voting and elections is a threat to withhold funding from states that accept ballots that arrive after Election Day. Though a federal judge didn’t block that provision in her ruling, the issue is still pending in a different lawsuit filed by Democratic attorneys general in 19 states, arguing that it violates the Constitution.
But should SCOTUS rule that Mississippi’s mail-in ballot receipt deadline violates federal law, it would achieve that particular goal of Trump’s order, potentially disenfranchising millions of voters. Learn more about the lawsuit here.
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