Campaign Legal Center and Protect Democracy filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that Congress intended to allow states to continue deciding for themselves whether they would count late-received ballots.
Back to topAll voters, no matter how they cast their ballot, should have the freedom to make their voices heard. This is a cornerstone of American democracy.
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear arguments in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a case challenging a Mississippi law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if...
This case is an attempt to disrupt longstanding laws that safeguard the freedom to vote.
The Constitution gives the states significant power to regulate their own elections, unless Congress steps in and enacts a law setting uniform national standards for federal elections. Many states have used that power to pass laws that allow them to count mail-in ballots that are cast on or before Election Day but received by a deadline set a few days later. These laws ensure that all validly cast mail-in ballots get counted, even if they encounter postal delivery delays.
In 2024, the Republican National Committee sued to challenge one such law in Mississippi, arguing that the federal Election Day statutes — which set federal elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November — prevent states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. But this is contrary to longstanding law and practice.
Congress recently took action to clarify one of the key laws that regulates federal elections. If Congress wanted to change the rules for vote-by-mail receipt deadlines, they would have done so when they passed the Electoral Count Reform Act just three years ago. By declining to do so, Congress has already indicated that the rules set by states for mail-in ballot receipt deadlines do not need to be changed.
This case has been appealed to the Supreme Court, and argument is expected in 2026. If the Supreme Court overturns states’ longstanding ability to count legally cast ballots received after Election Day, it would disproportionately harm rural voters, elderly voters, overseas and military voters, and voters with disabilities.
Access to voting by mail, when offered in addition to early voting and in-person voting, makes our democracy stronger by expanding access to the ballot for more voters.
That’s why Campaign Legal Center is urging the Supreme Court to reject this effort.
