The Supreme Court will hear a case on mail ballot deadlines : NPR

The US Supreme Court announced on Monday it will hear a case that could decide whether states can count postmarked mail ballots that arrive after Election Day – something about 20 states and territories currently allow.

Mississippi is one of those states, and in June its chief election official asked the court consider a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee alleging that a five-day grace period for mail-in voting violates federal law.

The Court of Appeal sided with the RNC. The decision, made when voters cast ballots in last year's presidential election, did not take immediate effect.

Sixteen states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Washington, DC.currently accepts and counts mail-in ballots received after Election Day—usually only if those ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day. Many states have similar grace periods only for military and overseas voters.

States give voters this wiggle room in case they forget to return their mail-in ballots early, there are problems with the postal service or other unforeseen problems arise, such as bad weather and natural disasters.

The GOP argues that only Congress, not the states, has the power to decide when the election will end and that Congress set a single election day.

Ahead of the 2024 election, the RNC has filed numerous legal challenges to various state grace period laws, including in the swing state of Nevada. Since then, GOP-led states including Utah have eliminated grace periods for voting by mailand President Trump has sought to end them nationally through executive order.

During the 2024 election, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots received by officials after Election Day were counted. For example, in Washington state, where the vast majority of voters vote by mail, officials reported that “more than 250,000 postmarked Washington ballots arrived after Election Day.”

Joyce Vance, Professor, University of Alabama School of Law, told NPR last year that Republicans are “trying to establish a possible rule for the future that only ballots that are cast and counted on Election Day count,” which she said made more sense under voting patterns a century ago.

“It doesn't reflect the current reality where we have early voting days and mail-in voting days precisely to accommodate the fact that not everyone can leave during regular business hours on Tuesday to vote,” she said.

The Mississippi case marks the third vote before the Supreme Court this year.

The justices are hearing another mail-in voting case that centers on… Do candidates have the right to sue for violations of voting rules?And high-profile challenge to the Voting Rights Act.