Supreme Court Upholds Legality of Mail-In Ballots Postmarked by Election Day

Read a PDF of our statement here.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge in Watson v. Republican National Committee that would have risked disenfranchising voters in Mississippi and other states who vote by mail. Specifically, the Court ruled that election officials may count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, even if they are received after the day of the election.

This decision comes just four months before the 2026 midterm election and allows elections officials to continue with standard voting procedures as normal. Voting by mail is an extremely common practice that many people use, and it's often a critical mechanism for participation in elections as health concerns, or work, family, school, childcare, or other obligations prevent many voters from comfortably voting in person on Election Day.

Fourteen states currently allow grace periods for ballots postmarked by Election Day. Altering these laws would have created mass confusion ahead of the midterms, unnecessarily complicated the voting process, and potentially disenfranchised countless voters, particularly Black voters in Mississippi. Today's decision will protect the rights of deployed military personnel, student voters, Americans living abroad, rural voters, voters with disabilities, and elderly voters who often rely upon absentee ballots.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) submitted an amicus brief in this case.

In response to the ruling, Janai Nelson, LDF President and Director-Counsel, issued the following statement:

"For decades, white voters dominated the use of mail-in voting yet no effort was made to curtail it. But after nearly 40% of Black voters used mail-in ballots for the 2020 election, President Trump and his allies have fixated on trying to cut back this essential freedom.

"Since the Civil War, states have permitted grace periods for receiving absentee votes. Today, a narrow majority of the Court correctly recognized that nothing in federal law requires states to end that practice and thereby disenfranchise voters. The Legal Defense Fund will continue to oppose efforts to undermine the voting rights of Americans who rely on mail-in ballots to participate in the democratic process."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF)is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.