US SC sounds sceptical of late-arriving ballots
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority sounded sceptical of state laws that allow the counting of late-arriving mail ballots, a persistent target of President Donald Trump. A ruling, likely to come by late June, that bars counting ballots arriving after Election Day would send officials scrambling in 14 states and the District of Columbia, just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections to change their ballot rules.
An additional 15 states that have more forgiving deadlines for ballots from military and overseas voters also could be affected.
The legal challenge is part of Trump’s 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.
The court heard arguments in a case from Mississippi pitting the state against Trump’s Republican administration and the Republican and Libertarian parties. At issue is whether federal law sets a single Election Day that requires ballots to be both cast by voters and received by state officials. ‘While there was no explicit reference to the 2020 election, several conservative justices gave voice to some of Trump’s complaints.
