June 29 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to strike down a Mississippi mail-in ballot grace period that allows ballots to be counted when received after election day.
The high court ruled 5-4 in favor of upholding Mississippi’s election law which allows election officials to count ballots that are postmarked by Election Day if they are received within five business days after an election.
The court’s three liberal justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett ruled in favor of upholding the law.
President Donald Trump has targeted mail-in voting as part of his election reform goals. Following the decision, Trump posted on social media that “it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.” The act would require proof of citizenship and limit mail-in voting with exceptions for people with illnesses, disabilities, who are on military deployment or who are traveling.
Mississippi’s Republican-led legislature adopted its mail-in voting grace period law during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s Republican Party and the Republican National Committee challenged the law, arguing to the court that all ballots must be received on or by Election Day under federal law.
In Barrett’s opinion, the law does not conflict with federal election law because federal law states, “the Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November,” is the “day for the election.”
Mississippi is one of more than a dozen states that allow mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
“The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose,” Barrett wrote in her opinion.
