{"id":2969,"date":"2026-06-29T20:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2969"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:33:22","slug":"supreme-court-rules-states-can-count-late-arriving-mailed-ballots-rejecting-trump-led-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2969","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rules states can count late-arriving mailed ballots, rejecting Trump-led challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong>  |  The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The 5-4 decision rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>In just over half those states, the more forgiving deadlines apply only to ballots cast by military and overseas voters.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the court\u2019s majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices.<\/p>\n<p>Federal laws setting a single Election Day \u201cleave open when those votes must be received,\u201d Barrett wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Congress could change the law, she said. \u201cIf varied deadlines for ballot receipt similarly call for a national solution, the American people must choose it through their elected representatives,\u201d Barrett wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Samuel Alito wrote the dissent for four justices. \u201cNot only is today\u2019s decision inconsistent with statutory text, legal context, historical practice, and precedent; it also threatens to produce lamentable consequences,\u201d Alito wrote. \u201cThe majority\u2019s holding spawns a slurry of troubling election-law questions and risks further undermining Americans\u2019 confidence in election integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The legal challenge was part of Trump\u2019s broader attack on most mail balloting, which he has said breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and years of experience in numerous states. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 resulted from fraud even though more than 60 court decisions and his own attorney general said that argument had no merit.<\/p>\n<p>Trump called the court ruling a \u201ctremendous loss\u201d and renewed his call for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which has made it through the House of Representatives but not the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is only one reason to oppose \u2014 CHEATING!\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social.<\/p>\n<p>Among other changes, the legislation would limit who is able to receive a mail ballot and impose a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement for registering to vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we want fair and secure elections, Election Day should mean exactly what it says, which is why this decision makes it even more imperative that Congress pass the SAVE America Act,\u201d RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The court heard arguments in March in a case from Mississippi pitting the state against Trump\u2019s Republican administration and the Republican and Libertarian parties. At issue was whether federal law sets a single Election Day that requires ballots to be both cast by voters and received by state officials.<\/p>\n<p>The federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrive within five business days of the election and are postmarked by Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome is a \u201csigh of relief\u201d for a lot of election administrators, said Stephen Richer, a Republican and the former top election administrator in Arizona\u2019s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p>A ruling in favor of the Republican National Committee \u201cwould have created a whole host of administrative challenges for the affected states,\u201d said Richer, who is now a legal fellow at the Cato Institute.<\/p>\n<p>RNC officials did not immediately respond Monday to email and telephone requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/us-supreme-court.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2963\">Nonprofit group aims to turn notorious Edge at Lowry apartments into affordable housing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2965\">What to Stream: \u2018Enola Holmes 3,\u2019 Madonna and the \u2018Legally Blonde\u2019 prequel series \u2018Elle\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2967\">TIME TO DECIDE: Colorado primary election ends tomorrow with big and small races on the ballot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON | The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of President Donald Trump. The 5-4 decision rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[807,4352,4791,4792,252,4793,303],"class_list":["post-2969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","tag-congress","tag-federal-law","tag-justice-amy-coney-barrett","tag-justice-samuel-alito","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-state-election-officials","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court rules states can count late-arriving mailed ballots, rejecting Trump-led challenge - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2969\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court rules states can count late-arriving mailed ballots, rejecting Trump-led challenge - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON | The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of President Donald Trump. 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