Supreme Court Rules States Can Count Absentee Ballots Received After Election Day

• •The Supreme Court held that federal election-day statutes do not require ballots to be received by election day.
• •Mississippi law allows absentee ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by election day and received by the registrar within five business days after the election.
• •The Court defined an 'election' as the act of the electorate choosing a candidate, which occurs when the voter casts their ballot, not when the ballot is received.
• •The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) confirms that states retain the authority to set their own ballot-receipt deadlines.
• •The Court rejected the argument that 19th-century voting practices should dictate modern interpretations of federal election statutes.
• •The ruling reverses a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that had previously held Mississippi's statute was preempted by federal law.

This ruling confirms that Mississippi and other states may continue their current practice of accepting absentee ballots postmarked by election day and received up to five business days later, rather than being forced to adopt a strict election-day receipt deadline.

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.