The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Mississippi law that permits mail-in ballots to be counted in elections even if they arrive after Election Day. The decision, which split the court 5-4, means that ballots received after the election deadline can still be considered valid.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Barrett's opinion clarified that while Election Day marks the deadline for voters to cast their ballot, federal laws do not impose a standard for when these ballots must be received to be considered valid. "The electorate’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received," Barrett wrote. "Election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose."
In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito argued a different interpretation. "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," he wrote. "The acceptance of these late-arriving ballots effectively postpones the date on which the electorate’s choice is made."