LISTEN LIVE: The Supreme Court is considering late-arriving mail-in ballot laws in a case that could impact the midterm elections

There will be only one Election Day for the midterm elections this fall – November 3. But voters in 14 states who cast ballots by mail had a grace period ranging from one day to several weeks during which their ballots could be received and counted.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments beginning Monday, March 23, at 10 a.m. EST. Listen live in the player above.

Whether that additional time should be allowed is the crux of the case that will be argued Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court overturns those grace periods, it will leave those states — and their voters — scrambling to adjust with just a few months before absentee ballots are sent out for this fall’s midterm elections.

Read more: The Supreme Court has revived a GOP congressman’s challenge to a late mail-in ballot law

The ramifications could extend beyond the 14 states that grant a grace period for regular voting, depending on how the court ultimately rules. Twenty-nine states allow at least extra time for some mail-in voters, including those who cast military and foreign ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Voting Rights Lab.

In a filing with the court, a group of election officials in states and major cities cited the “risks of confusion and disenfranchisement” if mail-in ballot grace periods suddenly end in states that voters have relied on for years.

Stuart Holmes, elections director for the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, said 127,000 ballots were received after Election Day in 2024, so voters should expect that many ballots to be rejected if Mississippi loses the case. Washington has the longest grace period of any state, 21 days after Election Day.

If the ruling is that a ballot is invalid even if it is postmarked by Election Day, “it will likely never be received,” he said.

“There is no way to solve this problem,” Holmes said. “There’s no second chance.”

“Election Day is Election Day.”

The practice of counting ballots after Election Day has been a goal of President Donald Trump since he sought to “stop counting” after the 2020 election. He and his allies say it delays results and creates doubts about vote counts. It’s part of Trump’s broader attack on most mail-in balloting, which he said breeds fraud despite findings to the contrary and years of experience in several states.

The Republican National Committee and the Mississippi Libertarian Party have filed a lawsuit against Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican, arguing that federal Election Day laws provide for one day to cast ballots. They say grace periods for receiving mail-in ballots — also in place in the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories — violate federal law.

“Election Day is Election Day for a reason,” Ohio Republican Sen. Teresa Gavarone said during a debate on her state’s ban on the practice last year. “Allowing ballots to be delivered days after an election only harms the integrity and credibility of our elections.”

In briefs supporting Mississippi, voting rights groups, local election officials and organizations representing military and foreign voters defend the right of states to write their own voting rules. The Constitution gives states the power to determine the “dates, places and manner” of elections.

Supporters of ballot grace periods told the court that upholding the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking down Mississippi’s law would threaten to create chaos and confusion in this year’s midterm elections.

“State legislatures have recognized this issue and have established election deadlines that balance the interests of speedy vote counting and ballot security depending on the specific needs of individual states,” a group of state and local election officials told the court.

The groups said eliminating grace periods could impact ballot verification activities, provisional ballot processing, and processing of military and foreign ballots that often occur after Election Day.

Some countries are already amending their laws

All 50 states require ballots to be cast or postmarked on or before Election Day. The 14 states with regular voting grace periods accept mail-in ballots and count them for periods ranging from one day after the election in Texas to 21 days after the election in Washington state. The contested grace period in Mississippi is five days.

A November 2025 Brookings Institution study found that mail-in voting was a practical and safe way to expand voter access, with about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail-in ballots. This was an option used by about 30% of voters across the United States during the 2024 presidential election.

As the Mississippi case approached, some states began to act on their own.

Four states — Ohio, Kansas, North Dakota and Utah — eliminated grace periods last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Voting Rights Lab. A fifth city, Minnesota, shortened its voting deadline from the close of polls on Election Day to 5 p.m

In signing the Ohio law, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine — who pledged he would not sign any more election restrictions supported by his fellow Republicans — said the Mississippi lawsuit forced him to do so.

“I think this four-day grace period is reasonable, and I think for many reasons it makes a lot of sense,” he said at the time, indicating that he would prefer to veto the legislation.

But DeWine said a ruling against Mississippi would jeopardize similar laws in other states, including Ohio, and doesn’t leave enough time to adapt.

For Adrian Muehlenkamp, ​​the earlier grace period in Ohio provided further relief over concerns that circumstances outside her control would prevent her from counting votes.

“I live in a rural part of the state and sometimes our mail has to go to a larger city and come back,” said Mohlenkamp, ​​48, a stay-at-home mother and volunteer in Athens who does not belong to either major party. “It gave me a sense of security, because even if I did my due diligence and returned it in time, I couldn’t always predict what it would do when it left my hands.”

States grapple with uncertainty about postmarks

In some large states, it may be difficult to distribute and return all mail-in ballots within the allotted time frame, said Katie Owens Hubler, elections program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

She said the postmark issue has become more difficult for states after recent changes in mail processing at the U.S. Postal Service.

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The agency’s updated policy, enacted in December, said postmarks may not indicate the first day the Postal Service receives mail, but rather the day it was handled at one of its processing centers. These centers could be far from some communities due to consolidation, a group of U.S. senators told the postmaster general earlier this year.

In response to potential Postal Service processing delays, some states have proposed extending ballot deadlines — California by three days, Virginia by five hours, and Kansas by an hour, depending on the county, according to NCSL.

Owens Hubler said informing voters of any changes resulting from the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Mississippi case must be done quickly.

“It’s not ideal to do this in a big election year like this one,” she said. “Voters are adaptable, but if there is a change from a postmarked date to a receipt date, that should be communicated and noted in advance.”